Exploration
by Poegie
Summary: The team is back working on a new job. They get help to ensure success, but little do they know that they have just started on their most dangerous job yet. Little do they know that something will go horribly wrong. Arthur/OC FINAL Chapter up!
1. The job

**Disclaimer: I respect and admire Christopher Nolan's work. I do not own the characters with the exception of new characters introduced solely in this fic.  
This fiction is written purely for entertainment purposes.  
Enjoy reading :)**

A month has passed since the Fischer job. Arthur could not help but think back of those memories, even though he preferred not to. They were all this close to getting sent to Limbo, waiting for their brains to burn out. Then there was also Cobb betraying their trust as he was aware of the dangers and still took everyone along into his own little fantasy. He was forgiven, because everyone understood why, but these memories still held everyone else back from taking up any more jobs after their success. However, Arthur still found himself back at the warehouse, unable to resist.

"I see you're back as well." Arthur was greeted by his old friend.

"I did not expect to see you here, Cobb." The point man replied. Cobb only shrugged.

"Once you get a taste of the dream realm, it is very hard to resist."

"How are the kids?" Arthur asked, trying to figure out why his friend was back, probably in search of a new job just like him.

"They are well." Cobb smiled a genuine smile out of happiness for the first time in a long while. "It is wonderful to be back with them and I will make sure it stays that way."  
"But the urge to go back into the field is too great." Arthur finished his sentence, for he was going through the same thing.

Cobb nodded in agreement. Then the extractor rose to his feet and handed over a file. "I have been doing some research myself. Pardon me." He excused himself for taking over Arthur's job.  
Arthur did not mind. In fact, he shot up at the promising hope of a new job. His eager eyes quickly skimmed through the information in the file while Cobb continued to fill him in.

"The HBA group is one of the leaders in today's computer technology. They are very powerful and dominate the market together with their biggest competitor T-tech."

"Ah, a powerplay again." Arthur commented.  
"Indeed. T-tech is on the verge of discovering and developing something revolutionary. If they manage to succeed, this will be a huge blow and setback for HBA. Therefore HBA hired us to do our thing. They want the information concerning the developments of T-tech."

Arthur finished skimming through the file. There was not much that could help him answer the dozens of questions that immediately rose in his mind.

"That's it? Is there anything else you know?" Arthur asked.  
Cobb shook his head. "They want to meet us."

"And by us you mean?"

"The entire team." Cobb answered. He was grateful that he and Arthur worked together for so many years. They knew what had to be done and they understood each other. Cobb was off to get back together the rest of his team while Arthur went to work with what little information he had.

It was not difficult for Cobb to convince the others to join his latest mission. Most of them had missed the excitement of working on a job. They also felt the temptation of going back into dreams and of course the money also played a role.

Eames was doing side jobs for other companies who needed a good thief in the real world. Ariadne was in Paris finishing her study. Eames was sold immediately, but Ariadne had doubts as she was almost graduating. However, just like the first time she felt the temptation of going back after storming away from the warehouse because she was stabbed in the gut by Mal's projection, she felt that temptation again. It was just as hard to resist as the first time.

Yusuf went back to developing his own compounds. The Fischer job was not exactly a pleasant experience. He was aware of the dangers of ending up in Limbo when using sedatives, but he had trusted Cobb at that time. It was only then when it was too late, that he realised the gravity of the situation. Being shot at while you try to stay alive, is not a good experience. Whether it was a dream or a reality, it did not matter. Cobb still tried to convince his former chemist to join him. Having the entire team together, somehow made him feel more secure about this new job.

After a couple of days, Arthur was greeted by more familiar faces at the warehouse while he was working at his desk.

"Still a stick in the mud I see. You haven't changed." Eames greeted Arthur.  
"You haven't changed as well. As uncivilized as always." He threw back his own greeting.

"It is good to see you again, Arthur." Ariadne said. Arthur nodded back in agreement. He noticed one member was missing.

"What about Yusuf?" He asked.

"Yusuf is sitting this one out." Cobb answered. "He normally doesn't go into the field. I think it was too much for him to handle last time when he went with us."

"Well you can't blame him." Eames said. "The poor guy's first time in the field and he almost ended up in Limbo."

"Fortunately we can do without a chemist." Cobb said, not letting this influence their mission.

"Now, get ready to meet our employer."

Soon they found themselves on their way to the address that was given to them. The taxi stopped in front of a small building. There was just something wrong about this building. It was a children day care center.

"Are you sure we're at the right place?" Eames asked the driver.

"Yes. Suffolk street is right here." The cabdriver answered. And thus they had no choice but to get out while Eames handed over some cash.

Everyone stared at the building, wondering if there was a mistake.

"Maybe it is a trap." Arthur said.

"Come on, Arthur. Lighten up. Just because it is not a big office, doesn't mean we're being set-up." Eames rolled his eyes.

"It wouldn't be the first time someone is trying to kill us." Arthur defended himself.  
"Maybe they made a mistake?" Ariadne tried.

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Cobb said and headed for the entrance, followed by the others.

As soon as they entered, they discovered it was just a normal children day care center. Nobody tried to shoot them and the doors and windows were not shut and barred. Instead children were running around everywhere with their caretakers chasing them.

One man stood out from this scene. He was wearing pressed trousers and a neat shirt with a tie. He introduced himself as Bob Dorinson, the assistant of the head of HBA, and led them to a small office at the back.

"It is a great pleasure to meet you. I am sorry Mr. Allen was not here to meet you personally, but he is a very busy man." He started as everyone got a seat.

"Also my apologies for the location. We just want to be careful and I am sure you know how valuable information and anonymity is nowadays. Would you like some tea or coffee?" He offered.

"No thank you. We're fine." Cobb declined politely to shut out the chance of being poisoned or drugged.

"Alright then. Let's get to business then." He smiled and handed over a thick envelope to Cobb.

Cobb opened the envelope and revealed a thick stack of papers and a picture of an Asian man dressed in a suit.

"The mark is Wailun Cheng. He is the head of the T-tech company. Their main office is in Shanghai, China. They have been our main competitor for years. They have been developing a new way of sharing information."

"What do you mean with a new way?" The always curious Ariadne asked.

"We suspect that they are trying to create something that enables people to convert thoughts into a medium, for example a video file. Perhaps it would be even possible to transfer thoughts from one person to another. This would change today's ways of sharing information and T-tech will gain a huge advantage and dominate the market."

"I don't understand." Eames interrupted.

"It means that in the future people will use different ways of communicating with each other. Nowadays, we communicate via the internet, telephone and so on, using images and sounds. But if you're able to convert your thoughts directly into a movie for example, or even transfer to someone else, that would change everything." Ariadne explained.

Mr. Dorinson smiled. "I am glad you understand the problem." He continued.

"The human brain is very complex. There is still so much we do not understand. Currently we at the HBA don't have the skills and knowledge to create something so extraordinary, so we need you to extract that information."

"So you can claim it as your own." Arthur finished his sentence.  
"That is indeed the plan." Mr. Dorinson said, paying no heed to Arthur's impoliteness.

"If you would succeed, you will receive 15 million. Payment will take place as soon as you have done the job. Everything else is in the envelope."

Mr. Dorinson made his way to the door and called out for someone. Soon they got company from a young girl in her early twenties. Arthur, trained to memorize every detail of every situation, remembered her as one of the caretakers chasing the children. She looked normal, very easy to blend in a crowd.

"I'd like to introduce you to Ada Wright." Mr. Dorinson gestured at the girl. The girl said hello to the team.

"She's our newest recruit, fresh out of university. She might be young, but she is very talented. We think she might be useful to you."

"With all due respect, Mr. Dorinson, but normally we assemble our own team." Cobb said.

"I see, but Mr. Allen insisted that she joins your team as the inventor." The assistant replied.

Cobb took a moment to reply. Meanwhile the rest of his team expressed their doubts about letting an outsider choose a new team member. Cobb thought about it. There was something inside of him that told him to expand his team. He got the feeling that Ada would indeed be useful in the future. Working in this branch for years, had resulted in Cobb developing something what people could call 'a sixth sense'. He knew he had to go with his instincts on this one.

Cobb motioned the others to silence. "If Mr. Allen insists, miss Wright will join us."

The rest of the team shared a different opinion, but all of them decided it was best to trust Cobb's choice. And so the team got some company from an inventor.

As they all went back to the warehouse, Ariadne asked: "What does an inventor exactly do?"

"The inventor is the person who works back-stage, you could say." Arthur filled her in. "The inventor creates new gadgets that can help make the extraction easier. Plus if there are any technical difficulties, it is the inventor's job to fix it. Often the inventor is also the one who stays behind to guard the dream machine while the rest is dreaming."

"At least we don't have tourists this time." Eames said.


	2. Preparations

The following weeks after, the team spend all their time preparing for the extraction. Ada received a crash course in dreaming. Cobb ensured that she made her own totem; a silver necklace with a matching oval locket. The rest of the team was satisfied to learn that she had no trouble picking things up. Mr. Dorinson was right. Over the course of a few weeks, Ada had proven her worth. When working with the dream machine, she figured out all by herself how the machine worked. Electronics were nothing new to her. Most children spent their free time with playing games or watching TV, but Ada spent her childhood taking apart the game consoles or TVs. It drove her parents nuts that their daughter kept on destroying expensive goods, but young Ada just could not help it. It was no surprise to her parents when Ada decided she wanted to go to the technical university. She graduated with flying colours and had filled her school with many small inventions due to school assignments.  
In short Ada was a talented young woman, but she also preferred to keep things a secret until she felt ready to tell them. Every day Ada would spend all her time in the warehouse. The others could only watch her working with heaps of scraps, trying to build who knows what.

After finding out more about Wailun, the team came together to forge a plan.

Cobb took out a flip chart while the others sat around it.

"First we need to figure out how to enter Wailun's mind."

"What about another airplane trip?" Eames offered.

"I don't think that would work. Wailun is a powerful man. He knows others are willing to do anything to find out what he knows. He will probably surround himself with security guards. If we would get caught, it would be unwise to get trapped inside an airplane up in the sky" Cobb said. "We need a different place where we can be alone with him long enough."

"Other than travelling, what are other opportunities?" Ariadne asked.

"Sleeping." Arthur answered. "Long travels and overnight stays are the only activities that require someone to stay put at the same place for a long time."

"I know Wailun's favourite hotel is the Shangri-La hotel." Ada began. "The head office of T-tech is situated in Shanghai, but their biggest factories are in Beijing. Wailun travels frequently up and down between the two places. Whenever he is in Beijing, he stays at the local Shangri-La hotel."

"Yes that could work." Cobb nodded and wrote the suggestion on the chart. Ada's suggestion earned the rare smiles of her team, including the perfectionist Arthur.

Arthur started to rack his brain. "If we are able to get him into the room we want, we only need to get past his security. And that won't be a problem, because he is a very materialistic man. We will do an old-fashioned swop the staff trick." The point man stated and others agreed.

Arthur saw the confused look on Ada's face and explained: "One of us will bring something to his room, get past the security and drug him."

"Wait, are we using sedatives again?" Ariadne asked.

"No, darling. We don't want to risk ourselves going to Limbo again." Eames winked. "We'll just use a light sleeping drug, just so Mr. Cheng won't go kicking about and warn his security."

Cobb made a few extra notes. "Extraction itself is a simply act if you're dealing with someone who is completely oblivious. Unfortunately we have to consider the chance that Wailun could take extreme measures to protect the information. He might have been in contact with other extractors."

He continued to write something on the chart. "I think it is best to use two levels. It will give us more flexibility."

"The first level could appear like a part of Shanghai, to make him feel safe." Ariadne said. "The second level will be the head office, a symbol for all his work and plans."

"Good." Eames agreed. "In the first level we will try to earn his trust. In the second level we will go after the information. Sounds simple enough."

"Let us hope there won't be any nasty surprises down there." Cobb said. He finished making notes on the chart. It was time to get to work. Now that there was a plan, everyone knew what to do.

Ariadne was busy designing the different levels, while Arthur and Cobb did the necessary research. Eames was often away, finding out as much as he could about Wailun's right hand Yan Jia. Jia was also the head of development. If there was anyone Wailun would trust within his own company, it would be him. Cobb was also gone frequently. He trusted his team with the preparations. Unlike the others he had to balance work and family in his life.  
Ada was still working on her secret inventions. The inventor was often covered in grease and dirt from building things or she was programming behind her computer all day. Things were starting to come together, but there was something missing. Working on this mission has been her greatest challenge yet. Sharing dreams is a far more complex concept than building computers or radios.

"Ah! Motherf-" Ada cursed and quickly put her burnt finger in her mouth. She just got electrocuted by her latest work.

"You should be more careful." Arthur said, who just walked by with a cup of coffee in his hand. "This is already your third time today."  
"I know." Ada grimaced and cleaned her hands with a cloth. "I'm just frustrated."

"Why is that?" He asked.

Ada sighed and threw the dirty cloth on top of the clump of wires and metal. "I am so close, but still not quite there yet and I am stuck. I am slowly running out of ideas."

The point man put down his coffee and grabbed a chair to join Ada. "Perhaps you just need to look at it from a different angle. Maybe I can help."

Ada laughed softly and looked at Arthur to see if he was serious. Sure, Arthur was good at doing research, but what would the tidy man dressed in suits know about technology?

"Arthur, I don't think you can help." The girl replied.

"Are you insulting my intelligence or do you not trust me?" Arthur asked while his eyes were locked with hers. Ada went a little pink in the cheeks. "I would never insult you."

"So you don't trust me?" Arthur concluded and grinned. Ada shook her head. She did not know the man sitting next to her very well. They had been working together for a few weeks, but they were definitely not close. Does she actually trust him?

"Hm, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try to explain it to you." She finally decided. "I am trying to put something together that can create an artificial kick. So far if you are dreaming, the only way to get out is to wait until the machine stops feeding the drug Somnacin in your body or to kill yourself in the dream."

"Unless you're working with sedatives." Arthur pointed out.

"Yes. If killing yourself does not work, or if someone above you wants to wake you up, you use a kick. However, the kick has to occur in the level above the one the dreamer is in at that moment. What if you're in a situation where it is impossible to create a kick?"

"I get your point." Arthur said while he remembered far too well when he had to create a kick with no gravity. Thank god he thought about creating explosives in that level.

Ada grabbed her invention. "Do you know what a hypnic jerk is?"

"That is when the body involuntarily jerks just when the person is about to fall asleep. It feels like you're falling and then you wake up. It is quite similar to a kick." Arthur answered.

Ada smiled in response. She always had a thing for intelligent men. "We wake up, because the brain thinks the body is in danger. The brain revives the body, ready to face whatever danger there is. The same thing happens when you experience a static shock. This little baby here needs to send a small shock to make the brain think the body is in danger. It will be controlled by whoever stayed behind in a level. With one push of a button, it is possible to wake everyone up, no matter which level they are in." She tapped the invention. "Well, except for Limbo of course."

"Impressive." Arthur smiled. This would indeed make the act of extraction a lot easier.

"So what is the problem? It looks like you already have the shock." Arthur's eyes travelled down to the red spot on her finger.

"Well, I'm having a hard time trying to apply it to shared dreaming. It is not as simple as just sending electrical shocks to the sleeping bodies. Plus it is a complex piece of technology. If you work with different levels, you would still have to rely on traditional kicks if the dreamer doesn't know how it works. The machine won't exist in a dream if the dreamer is not familiar with it."

"Why can't you…" Arthur was looking for the right word. Technology was definitely not his field of expertise. "Can you update the dream machine? Make it a part of the machine. At least that would solve the last problem."

Suddenly Ada slapped her forehead. "Arthur! Thank you. Why haven't I thought of that before?" Ada continued to ramble on, more to herself than to Arthur.

The point man was smiling as he saw the inventor work with new found spirit. His work was done. The point man suddenly saw something shift in the corner of his eyes. When he turned to look, the architect quickly looked away. Arthur's eyes rested on the architect for a few more seconds, but she appeared to be absorbed in making mazes. He gave up and went back to work.

The time was nearing for the team to put their plan into action. Ada finished her invention. Just as Arthur suggested, she integrated the new technology into the dream machine. The shocks themselves should ensure that everyone wakes up, but just to be one hundred percent sure, the device was also linked to the part that regulates the flow of drugs into the dreamers. Before actually explaining it to the others, she hogged Arthur's time so he could be her guinea pig.

"Arthur?" The inventor slowly approached the desk with heaps of papers and charts. She could only detect the top of Arthur's neatly combed back hair.  
Arthur looked up, emerging from his work. "Yes?" He asked in his business tone.

"Do you have time?" Ada tried. She knew Arthur was busy working, but she still hoped he would be willing to give up a few minutes of time for her. "Normally I wouldn't ask this of you, but I can't do it on my own. I need your help."

"What do you need help with?" He raised one eyebrow.

"I finished my invention and I need someone to test it on. You already know how it works, so I thought it would be logical to-"  
"Use me as your lab rat." Arthur finished her sentence.

"I was going to say most honourable test subject who I'd be in debt with, but whatever works for you." Ada joked.

"I prefer your suggestion." Arthur grinned. "Alright, what do I have to do?"

Ada had a huge smile on her face. She was happy that Arthur agreed upon helping her. She grabbed the updated dream machine and was surprised that Arthur had cleaned his desk. "Thanks" She said while placing the machine on the now tidy desk. Arthur placed the IV himself, but he noticed that there was another string with a round white patch at the end.

"You should place this one here." Ada helped him to put the patch on the top of his hand. She could not help but notice how soft his hand felt. Their eyes then met for an awkward moment. Realising now was not the moment for strange thoughts, she kept her cool. "I will let you sleep first. Then I will wake you up again."  
Arthur nodded. Ada pressed the button to let him enter the dream realm. Arthur opened his eyes and found himself in his bed in his own house. He got up and walked around in the room, waiting to be woken up again. There it was. He felt the familiar sensation of entering into nothingness for the split of a second, before he opened his eyes again. He was back at the warehouse. By now the others were staring at them to see what they were doing.

"It worked." Arthur said to Ada.

"We're not done yet." Ada announced so that her test subject would not pull out the IV. "I'll let you sleep again, but this time you should create the dream machine in the dream and go one level deeper." She ordered.

"What if it doesn't work?" Arthur wondered, just in case he would get stuck.

"It will." Ada ensured him. "Or you don't trust me?" She teased him back with his own mind tricks. Arthur looked at her. Not wanting to give in, he said: "Let's go then."  
As Arthur fell asleep, Eames approached the two of them. He took out his phone and used the camera function. Then he pointed the lens at Arthur's sleeping form.

"What are you doing?" The girl beside him questioned.

Eames winked in response. "Just having a little bit of fun, darling."

After a while the inventor pressed the button to revive the point man. His body jerked in a weird manner. Due to the uncontrollable movement, Arthur accidentally hit his hand against his desk and moaned in pain. As Arthur opened his eyes, Eames was snickering softly while he hid his phone. The forger walked back to his desk mumbling something about 'great screensaver'. Fortunately for him, the point man did not suspect anything.

"That was great." Arthur commented. Then he felt the pain in his hand.

"Yeah sorry about that." Ada said when she saw him trying to relieve the pain by rubbing his hand. "You hit your hand during the hypnic jerk."

"That's alright." Arthur was content about the results. "I did what you told me and went another level deeper, but when I woke up, I completely skipped the first level."

"Great. Now do it again and go even deeper." Ada ordered. She was excited that her invention worked and wanted to see how far they could go."

They continued to test it a few more times and each time the hypnic jerk worked perfectly.

Soon everyone finished their preparations and it was time for Ada to explain her invention to the rest of the team.  
"So if you push this button," She pointed at the dream machine "Then the machine will stop the flow of Somnacin into the body and a small electrical shock will be sent to the body via this patch."

She then stuck the patch on Ariadne's hand to demonstrate. When she pressed the button, Ariadne quickly jerked away her hand while she yelped out.

"Did that hurt, love?" Eames expressed his concerns.

Ariadne rubbed her hand after removing the patch. "No, but it is also not very pleasant."

"Sorry." Ada apologized to the other girl. "If you guys are going down there, just create the dream machine with this extra button on it. It should work the same way as in reality, because you all know how it is suppose to work. You will be able to travel back through each level."  
"Great work Ada." Cobb said after the little demonstration. "Arthur, what do you have for us?"

"Wailun will leave for Beijing in three days. He will stay at the Shangri-La hotel. I made sure he booked the executive suite. It is situated at the end of a hallway, away from security cameras, but close enough to the emergency staircase. When we go down there, we must proceed with caution. Wailun has indeed contacted an extractor."

"Ariadne, please keep that in mind. We need to be armed to fight off the projections." Cobb directed his attention to the architect.

"Got it. Arthur and I both know the lay-outs of the levels."

"Good. Eames?"

The forger took out a leather wallet he obvious had stolen. "I kept a close watch on Yan Jia. It won't be a problem for me to imitate him. Once we are in the head office, I will have no problem getting around. Here are identity cards, entrance passes, the whole lot."

"Hold on. Do you speak any Chinese?" Ada asked.

Eames let out a laughter. "No, love. But that won't matter. In dreams he will believe it as long as there are enough familiar traits."

Cobb was satisfied. They were prepared as best as they could. "Great work everyone. Let us head off to Beijing then."


	3. Almost too easy

**A/N Thank you everyone who reviewed. Your lovely comments inspire me to write even more.  
Sorry guys, this chapter came out later than expected. Life is busy and I had to rewrite a couple of things before I was satisfied with this chapter.  
Anyway, enough blabla from me. Enjoy reading.**

After a long flight, the team stayed at the same hotel as their mark. They had one day left before Wailun would arrive at the hotel. They spend their time making last minute preparations.

"I really have a bad feeling about this." Ada said to Eames as they sneaked to the closet with the sign 'Staff only' on it. It was late in the evening when the two of them made their way to the locker rooms of the hotel staff.  
"Don't worry, darling. This is what I do for a living." Eames took out something from his pocket.  
Ada could not see it clearly in the dark, but she could hear the sound of metal being jammed into the keyhole. After a few seconds, they heard a click and the door was open. Both of them rushed inside and Eames shut the door behind them before flicking on the lights. They were surrounded by piles of towels, cleaning products, vacuum cleaners and toiletries.

"Why am I here again?" The inventor asked as her eyes wandered over the piles of towels and linen.

"Well, you need to fit the clothes, love. Otherwise it might look weird." Eames grinned and found the pile with staff clothing.

"What do you mean?" Ada was confused, but began to search for her size anyway.

"You will be the one to go into Wailun's room when the coast is clear." Eames' grin went wider.

"I what? Nobody told me that." Ada panicked a bit. What if she got caught? There was a reason why inventors lay low.

"Calm down, darling. You only need to distract him so we can drug him. You are guarding the machine, so it is best that you do it. It might be a problem if Wailun sees one of us and recognizes us in the dreams. Now, I don't really understand Chinese sizes. Are you a size M?" Eames held out a dress in front of him.  
They were looking for a cleaning maid outfit. "It looks so small." He eyed the dress first, then eyed Ada, trying to imagine whether she would fit in it or not.  
Ada blushed at the unwanted attention and quickly yanked the dress out of the forger's hands. "I will take it over from here, thanks." She muttered. She was not pleased to find out that Eames was indeed right. The clothes were a lot smaller here in comparison to in the States. Eventually the two of them left with a size L.

The next day they all waited for their mark to arrive. Cobb and Arthur were on the look-out. Ada slipped into the grey dress and Ariadne helped her put on the apron.

"You look lovely, dear." Eames winked.

Ada blushed, not quite sure how to respond. Then she yelped out at the painful cutting feeling around her waist.

"Sorry. I don't know my own strength." Ariadne apologized and loosened the strings of the apron. Eames could only laugh at the scene before him.

In the evening, Cobb and Arthur announced that it was time.

"We lucked out. There are no guards near the room. It's time to move." Cobb reported. Arthur grabbed the suitcase containing the dream machine and Ada grabbed the tray with a bottle of champagne and assorted Belgium chocolates they prepared yesterday. She was glad Arthur and Cobb were sophisticated enough not to mention anything about her somewhat embarrassing outfit.

They made their way to the executive suite. Ada sighed, bracing herself, as she checked if her new, stolen clothes were tidy. The others were waiting in the nearby emergency staircase. The inventor made her way to the door and knocked on it.

"Housekeeping" She announced. After a while the door opened, revealing a man in tidy trousers and shirt. "Good evening, Sir. I have some complimentary champagne and Belgium chocolates for you."

The man eyed her suspiciously, but still decided to open the door. For a moment Ada thought he was going to warn his guards. Maybe he was not used to getting complimentary goods. She could feel her heart racing and tried her best to remain calm.

"You can put it over there." Wailun pointed at the night stand next to the bed.

Ada sighed in relief mentally and went inside to do what she was told. "Thank you for choosing the Shangri-La hotel again, Mr. Cheng. It is a pleasure to have you here. I hope everything is according to your wishes." She started a conversation to attract the man's attention. Wailun closed the door and approached her, but Ada did not hear the usual click of the door closing. As Wailun expressed his satisfaction with the room, she could see the door open again and Cobb sneaking in behind Wailun.

"That is good to hear. Have a pleasant evening then." Ada said when Cobb was close enough.

Cobb took that as his queue and covered the man's nose and mouth with a cloth drenched in drugs. The man collapsed almost immediately without too much of a struggle. Cobb caught the man to break his fall. While he dragged the lifeless body to the bed, Ada was off to get the others. The rest made their way into the room and made themselves comfortable. Arthur took out a walkman and handed it over to the inventor.  
"If something goes wrong here, warn us with this." He explained. "Give us ten seconds before you pull us out."

Ada nodded. Then she helped everyone place the IV. Everyone also wore the electrical patches except for Wailun.  
"Good luck guys." She said to them and then pressed the button to let them sleep.

The others found themselves in the middle of a large shopping area in Shanghai. It was very crowded and all the projections seemed to be in a hurry. The team hid behind a shopping mall. Every member was carrying a gun. Eames took a peek to spot hazardous projections.

"That's odd. I thought you said he secured his mind." The forger said to the point man.

"That was what I thought. I am very sure he had contact with an extractor." Arthur said and took a look for himself.

"What does it mean then?" Ariadne asked. "Are they just waiting for a good moment to shoot us?"

"No." Cobb answered. "Wailun has no control over his subconscious. He also did not protect his mind, but still, we should be careful."

The rest nodded. Cobb's mind went into overdrive. It was a good thing that so far the projections were harmless, but Cobb felt anxious. There was something not right about this. It was almost too easy. He wanted to get it done as fast as possible.

"Change of plans." Cobb announced. "Can we do the job in just one level?"

"No, we can't. I didn't build T-tech's office in this level. It is just a big area of shopping streets." Ariadne replied. "I thought that we would use two levels."

Cobb put his gun back into the holster on his back. "Then we stick to the original plan, but we should go deeper as soon as possible."

"Leave it up to me." Eames said. "Let's go, darling." He said to Arthur.

There was a big traffic jam. A black car stopped in front of them. The owner was yelling at other drivers and honked furiously. Arthur got in the car at the passenger side.

"What do you think you're doing? Get out of my fucking car, asshole." The driver was now cussing at him.

Arthur pointed his gun at the man. "Get out." Threatening someone with a gun always did the trick.

As soon as the driver got out, Arthur took over the steering wheel. Eames got in at the back and they took off. Ariadne and Cobb hijacked their own taxi. They went ahead to the studio where they would wait for the other two.

Arthur drove away from the traffic jam and took a left turn into a side street while Eames changed his appearance. Then they spotted Wailun walking in front of them. Arthur pulled over next to him and Eames got out.  
"Mr. Cheng, what are you doing here? We are running late for the meeting." Eames held the door open for him and pretended like they were in a hurry.  
Wailun looked confused to see his head of development. "Where am I?"

Arthur noticed that some of the pedestrians turned their heads to him. Eames pushed a bit further in order to convince Wailun. "You were on your break, Sir. When we found out you weren't back by 1 o'clock, we went to look for you. Now, please get into the car. The board meeting is about to start."

Wailun was still confused, like he had forgotten something.  
"Ah yes, the board meeting. My apologies. I think I got lost." He got into the car, while trying to get a grasp of what was happening. As soon as he got into the car, the projections no longer paid any attention to Arthur. The point man drove away, circling around in town. In the car Eames handed over a file he forged when preparing for the job.

"Here are the figures of last month and the budget."

Wailun looked through them briefly. "Good. Where are the development proposals?"

"It is all in there, Sir." Eames knew that by now, Wailun believed everything he saw. "Before we head of to the meeting, there is someone I would like you to meet."

Wailun stopped looking through the files and now focused on his loyal employee.  
"His name is Trevor Mccoy. He is from America." Eames explained. "I met him a couple of weeks ago and I think he can help us secure our advantage over HBA. They are specialised in building very unique types of technology."

"I thank you for your contribution, Jia, but I don't think we need any more help. You and your department can handle it." Wailun rejected Eames' suggestion.

"You should meet them, Sir. I believe it is unwise to reject their help. Let them explain what they do themselves. I am sure you will be as convinced as I am."

Wailun thought about it. After a while he ordered: "Alright then. Make it quick."  
"Excellent, Sir." Eames smiled. "Driver, to the studio please."

"Yes, Sir." Arthur said in a neutral voice, disguising how much he hated it to call Eames 'Sir'. In his rear-view mirror he caught a glimpse of the huge grin plastered on Eames' face.

The three of them entered the studio. Eames led the way, followed by Wailun and with Arthur in the back. Arthur pulled out a cloth and dampened it with the liquid drug he had in his pocket. When they went inside, the studio was empty. Before Wailun had the chance to wonder where his appointment was, Arthur already drugged him the same way Cobb did in reality. Arthur put Wailun's body in a chair as Cobb and Ariadne came out of their shelter with the dream machine. Eames changed himself back again.

"Imagining a nice bed or a comfortable chair wouldn't hurt." Eames complained. There was only one chair in the studio and unfortunately it was already taken.  
"Don't fret Eames. You're used to sleeping on the floor anyway." Arthur said.

"Stop fooling around. Focus." Cobb stopped their bickering.

Fortunately the two listened to him. Eames went to find the most comfortable place on the floor for him to lie down on, while Arthur went to double check the machine. Suddenly Ariadne decided to approach Arthur.

"Arthur, do you think this 'artificial kick' will work?" She spoke in a soft voice as if trying to hold a private conversation with him.

Arthur stopped and eyed his colleague. Ariadne was a horrible liar. Plus she could not act, even if her life depended on it. Over the years he had entered the minds of women enough times to understand the female mind better than the average male. He knew that Ariadne was up to something.

"Yes it will work. We tested it." Arthur decided to answer her question. He could see her eyes travelling across his face, trying to read him.

"Just you and Ada?" She asked.

"Yes. Obviously she didn't want anyone else to know about it before it was finished." Arthur shrugged. "I am sure she had her own reasons for that."

"Yes I guess." Ariadne said, realising this was not going the way she wanted it to go.

Arthur could also feel it. He decided to put an end to it. They were on a job for Christ sake. This was not the time to bring in private matters.  
"Ariadne, we are all colleagues. I think we should trust each other. There is no room for errors in this business. We must stay professional." He emphasised on the word 'all' and hoped Ariadne would understand. Arthur just realised something and thought back of the kiss they shared two months back. No doubt it had something to do with whatever Ariadne was up to. He sighed. What a mess, but it had to wait. They had more important things to do at the moment.

Arthur picked up one of the strings attached to the machine and offered it to Ariadne. "You should go."  
Ariadne looked at it for one moment, then decided to take the IV, realising the conversation had come to an end. He was right. There was no room for errors. Ariadne tried hard to focus on the job, even though it was a chaos in her mind. If she would make a mistake, the whole job would fail and the stubborn architect would never let that happen.

Soon Eames, Cobb and Ariadne were on the floor with the IV and patch attached to them. Arthur pulled out the walkman out of the suitcase.

"Ten seconds." He reminded the others. They nodded and then their bodies went limp.

When they opened their eyes, they were all sitting around a large desk. At the other side of the desk sat Wailun. They were inside Wailun's personal office.

"Therefore, Mr. Cheng, I think it would be wise for us to cooperate." Cobb quickly said before Wailun came to his full senses.  
Wailun was just as confused as when he found himself in the middle of Shanghai. He looked around and was relieved to find out that he was back inside his own office. Then he noticed that all three persons in his office were staring at him.  
"Are you alright, Sir?" Eames faked a worried look as the head of development. "Should I call a doctor?"

"No, I am fine." Wailun assured his employee. He then noticed a few documents on his desk. They were more figures, also made by Eames. Wailun skimmed through the documents briefly.

"As you can see, it will be possible to increase the production numbers and increase the profit." Cobb pointed out. "But in order for us to work together, we need to know all details from your side. We need to know how it works, how it is build and what it is made of."

Wailun unconsciously looked at the large LCD screen hanging on the right wall. Then he squinted in suspicion. Ariadne was worried. This was going to turn out bad. Wailun was a very careful man. This was already evident from the moment Ada tried to enter his hotel room in reality. There was no way he would believe them in such a short amount of time in a new dream. She grimaced slightly at the thought of the inventor, but she quickly restored herself. Then she looked at Cobb, but instead of being anxious, Cobb looked very confident.

After a moment of silence, Wailun said: "I am sorry, Mr.-" He paused.  
"Trevor Mccoy." Cobb helped him.

"Mr. Mccoy, I thank you for your time. I will have a look at the report and I will inform you about my decision as soon as possible." He rose to his feet and extended his hand.  
Cobb also stood up and shook the man's hand. "No problem. Take your time."

Wailun also shook Ariadne's hand and then ordered: "Jia, could you please show them the way out?"  
Eames led the two to the door. As soon as they were outside of Wailun's hearing range, Ariadne hissed at Cobb: "That was too soon. He will never believe us."

Cobb pulled out his gun as they made their way to the elevator further down the hallway. "He doesn't need to. I know where the information is. He looked at the TV screen when I mentioned it. Be on your guard."

Ariadne and Eames both took out their gun.

"Great, so now Wailun is suspicious and his projections will be going after me." Ariadne said. They arrived at the elevator and Ariadne used a bit too much force than necessary pushing the button to go down.

"Yes, that is the plan. You two distract them and I will go after the information." Cobb ordered. "Oh and Ariadne."

Ariadne turned to look at her supposedly friend.

"Please try to stay alive as long as possible."

"Very funny." Ariadne said.


	4. A nasty surprise

**Previously:  
**_"Great, so now Wailun is suspicious and his projections will be going after me." Ariadne said. They arrived at the elevator and Ariadne used a bit too much force than necessary pushing the button to go down._

_"Yes, that is the plan. You two distract them and I will go after the information." Cobb ordered. "Oh and Ariadne."_

_Ariadne turned to look at her supposedly friend._  
_"Please try to stay alive as long as possible."_

_"Very funny." Ariadne said._

* * *

The elevator binged and the doors opened, revealing six men dressed in suits and more importantly: armed with guns.

"Out of the way!" Eames bellowed and shoved his team members to the left as the men in suits opened fire. The three of them quickly scrambled back onto their feet and headed for the staircase at the end of the hall. As they were running, they heard gunshots behind them. They barely made it to the staircase without getting shot.

"Spread out!" Cobb yelled as they raced down. Cobb entered two floors beneath Wailun's office, while Ariadne and Eames both continued running down the stairs. Eames fired at the men that followed them and managed to hit two of them in the chest, but beneath them, more projections entered the staircase. Ariadne now shot at the projections closest to them at the front, killing three of them. She was surprised at how easy it was for her to aim at someone and shoot. After shooting Mal on the spur of a moment down in Limbo, handling a gun in dreams became easy.  
More and more projections came from beneath them. Unable to go down, Ariadne entered the closest door. "This way." She said and Eames followed. As they kept on running, dodging bullets and shooting at projections all at the same time, Ariadne managed to ask: "Why is this happening? Why are the projections suddenly going berserk?"

"It's because of Wailun. He must have figured out it was all a dream."

"I thought only protected minds have projections with guns." Ariadne said.

"Or unless the subject is extremely pissed about someone messing with their mind." Eames shot a few more of their pursuers.

Meanwhile a few floors above them, Cobb quickly entered one of the offices before the projections could see him and shut the door. He pressed himself against the wall next to it with his gun held steady in his hand. He heard the projections run past the door. He waited until their footsteps died out. Then he quietly exited the office and walked down the hall.  
Going back to the staircase was not an option. The only way to go back up was to use the elevator.  
The extractor pressed the button for the elevator to come up. Then he stood against the wall next to the opening. He prayed there were no projections inside when the elevator arrived. Fortunately it was empty. Cobb went inside and pressed the button with 28 on it.

Right then he saw the projections on the other side of the hallway. Trained for such moments, Cobb instinctively raised his gun and shot the closest one down. Meanwhile his other hand repeatedly pressed the button that closed the doors. The projections were quick and started shooting again. The doors started to close, but they did not close fast enough.  
The men were now running towards the elevator, determined to get the extractor. Bullets were flying everywhere. Cobb threw himself against the right side of the elevator. More and more holes were shot into the elevator. The doors closed completely just in time to lock out the projections.  
Cobb sighed in relieve, but he had no time to recover. There was not much time. The projections would see him going up. They would know where he is going.

Cobb made his way back into the, by now empty, office of Wailun. He hastily removed the TV screen from the wall. Just as he thought: there was a big safe behind it. He wasted no time trying to break into the safe. After a few moments, he heard the satisfying click of the safe unlocking and opened it. Inside he found a file and quickly replaced it with an empty one. He closed the safe and hung back the screen.  
Then he left the office and headed for the top floor. There he duck into the toilets and opened the file. The information was complicated, but fortunately Cobb was blessed with a photographic memory. He might not understand it, but he was able to reproduce everything. After memorizing everything, he destroyed the file. He could hear footsteps in the distance. They were probably looking for him. Just as someone swung open the door of the washroom, Cobb shot himself in the head.

Cobb opened his eyes and found himself back at the studio. He quickly removed the strings from his arm.

"Did you get it?" Arthur asked.

"Yes. How are Eames and Ariadne?"

"Still out." Arthur replied and nodded at the two bodies lying on the floor. "What happened?"

"We had to separate. There were armed projections down there." Cobb explained. "Quickly, wake them up."  
Arthur went over to the machine to press the button, but Eames already woke up.

"Bloody hell." Eames cursed while ripping off the IV and the patch. "It was a trap." He said.

"What do you mean?" Cobb asked.

"Ariadne is still down there. They got her." Eames said. His eyes were full of worry.

Arthur quickly pressed the button to get their architect out. They could see her body jerk on the ground, but her eyes still remained closed.

"Why isn't it working?" Cobb asked.  
"I don't understand. It worked perfectly when we tested it." For once, Arthur was baffled. It was a nuisance that the inventor was not there with them to fix the problem.

"We have no time. We need to use a kick." Eames said, knowing that Ariadne could be hurt down there. He imagined the poor girl alone, captured or perhaps even tortured by the projections as she cried out wanting to be woken up.  
Cobb and Eames removed Wailun's body from the chair and gently placed Ariadne's on it. Arthur altered the dream and imagined a big fluffy mattress behind the chair to soften the blow. Eames then pushed the girl, making her fall backwards onto the mattress. All three of them were waiting for her to open her eyes, but she never did.

"What is going on?" Eames lost his cool and became more frantic. He bent over and began to shake the girl violently. Guilt slowly crept into his mind. He should have looked after her more carefully. He was not the only one with inner battles.  
Arthur could not tear his eyes away from Ariadne's face. His mind was racing. Was she onto something when she asked him if it was safe for them to go down a while ago? Was he perhaps too foolish to acknowledge her suspicion and instead just thought she had a crush on him? Or was he right after all and his words hurt her so much that she became too disoriented to face the projections?

"Eames, calm down." Cobb ordered and put a sympathetic hand on the man's shoulder. "We need to get out of here first. Ariadne's dream could fall apart any minute now and then wake up Wailun in the process."

Arthur redeemed himself. "We can try it again above." He pointed towards the ceiling with his index finger. "Ada said that the machine will be able to wake up anyone, regardless of the level that person is in." He hoped with all his heart that Ada was right.

"Alright then." Eames nodded. The three of them grabbed their guns and shot themselves.

"That was quick." Ada commented when the three men woke up. Then she noticed that Ariadne did not wake up.

"Something went wrong down there. We couldn't wake up Ariadne." Arthur said and unplugged himself. He went for the machine and pressed the button. Just like before, Ariadne's body jerked in her seat. Eames bit in his fist in order to keep things together. The others looked at Ariadne as well, as if that would make her magically wake up. It also did not work this time.

"Why isn't it working?" Arthur demanded. The bit of hope he had left, was crushed. Everyone now stared at Ada, hoping she would have a good explanation.

"I don't know." Ada panicked a bit. This was not supposed to happen. This could not happen. She did not have a lot of experience with dreams, but from what the team told her about their adventures, this was impossible. "The machine is supposed to revive anyone with the shock."

"Unless she's in Limbo." Arthur suddenly remembered what Ada told him when he helped her out.

"It is all my fault. I should have watched her more carefully." Eames said.  
Arthur disagreed, but telling the others about his conversation with Ariadne earlier, did not help much right now.

"What exactly happened?" Cobb asked.

Eames sighed before explaining. "The projections surprised us down there. They were armed and went after us three. Then we decided to split up so Cobb could go after the safe. Ariadne and I fought them off for quite a while, but there were too many. Wailun was also there. He mentioned something about sending us 'deeper than man has ever gone before'. Then they cornered us. We knew something was wrong so we tried to kill ourselves to wake up, but they got to us first and separated us. I barely managed to break free and jump out of the window."

"It sounds like we have been set up." Arthur concluded. "And what did he mean with 'deeper than man has ever gone before'?"

"Did he mean Limbo? That would explain why Ariadne doesn't wake up." Ada said.

"If that's true, we need to go back to get her out." Eames said.

"But then we have to move fast. Doesn't time run a lot faster down in Limbo?" The girl asked.

"Yes it does. If we don't act soon, her brains will be turned into scrambled eggs." The forger said.

"What about HBA? They will be expecting some news from us." Arthur added.

"First we need to get the hell out of here." Cobb said.  
The others agreed. Ada grabbed the suitcase while Arthur was busy erasing all traces of their visit. Eames grabbed Ariadne's body and gently lifted her over his shoulder. After also getting all their stuff from their own room, they took a taxi and searched for another hotel. It was difficult to explain to the driver why they were carrying around a body. It was even more difficult to explain it at the hotel reception. After a lot of trouble, they managed to get a hotel room.

On the way, Cobb prepared the information and sent it to HBA. He received a phone call from Mr. Dorinson when they arrived at their hotel room.

"Mr. Cobb, my people have informed me you send the information to us."

"Yes I just send it." He was not surprised that the caller had received the results of the extraction so fast. HBA was probably desperate to get their hands on it. They must have been waiting.

"Thank you. Unfortunately my people have also informed me that the information is not complete. A big part of it is missing."  
"What do you mean? That was all there was to extract." Cobb said. Not a good sign. He knew this would end up bad.

"Perhaps you made a mistake. Are you sure you took out every last bit of information?" Mr. Dorinson asked.

Cobb remembered very clearly that there was nothing else in the safe. "We do not make mistakes." He simply replied.  
"Then you must find the missing parts. The information you send us is useless on its own. We need the remaining information." Mr. Dorinson stressed. "You will have to find out who knows more about it and extract it."

Cobb could not believe what he was hearing. All that trouble for nothing. Anger and frustration started to build inside of him. It took him much willpower not to start yelling. "Listen to me and listen to me very carefully. This was not the agreement! The agreement was that we would perform extraction on Wailun Cheng. That is what we did. We kept our end of the bargain. Now it is your turn."

"Now there, Mr. Cobb. There is no use in threatening me. You see, the HBA can be your friend, but we can also be your enemy. If you value your life and those of your team, I suggest you to do exactly as I say."

"Look, we have just had a very rough ride down there and you are telling me I need to jeopardize my team again, because you failed to give us proper instructions?"

"That's right Mr. Cobb." Mr. Dorinson said calmly.

Cobb was on the verge of exploding with anger. There was no time. They needed to go back for Ariadne.  
"I will think about it. First I need to get my team back together." With that Cobb hung up.


	5. Trust

**Previously:  
**_"Look, we have just had a very rough ride down there and you are telling me I need to jeopardize my team again, because you failed to give us proper instructions?"_

_"That's right Mr. Cobb." Mr. Dorinson said calmly._

_Cobb was on the verge of exploding with anger. There was no time. They needed to go back for Ariadne._  
_"I will think about it. First I need to get my team back together." With that Cobb hung up._

* * *

The others had been listening along and now there was an awkward silence.

"That's it then? We did all that for nothing?" Eames broke the silence.

"We will deal with the HBA later. First we need to get Ariadne back." Cobb said.

Cobb then turned to Ada. "You. Did you know about this?" He squinted and slowly approached Ada.

The girl was taken aback by surprise at the sudden change of Cobb's mood. Her feet moved automatically, making her back up to the wall.  
"What are you talking about?" She said and noticed her voice was trembling.

"What a coincidence isn't it?" Cobb looked seriously angry and when he was angry, you definitely do not want to mess with him. "Such a coincidence that you stayed behind to guard the machine." He closed in on the girl.  
"Ariadne is now stuck in the dream realm, waiting for her brains to burn out. They almost got Eames too. Was it your plan to get us all send to Limbo?" Cobb used his most imitating look reserved for emergencies.

Ada could only look back as a frightened kitten. Her brain seemed to be frozen. She could not speak. Arthur observed her closely. She appeared to be innocent, but years of working in this business taught him that not everything is as it seems. Was this what Ariadne was trying to warn him about?

Meanwhile Cobb was getting impatient. "Tell me!" Cobb yelled when she did not answer. The clock was ticking. With every second the chance of getting Ariadne back was getting smaller.

The inventor was now cornered by the extractor and she started to panic. "I don't know why that happened. I don't know anything! I just joined HBA and the first thing I had to do, was join your team."

Cobb was not convinced. Ada looked at Arthur and Eames with a plea of help.  
Arthur was stuck in a dilemma. The only way to judge this situation, was to trust his instincts.

"Cobb, that's enough!" Arthur then also raised his voice. "It is obvious that she doesn't know anything. Besides, HBA wouldn't gain anything by sending us down to Limbo."

"Don't stick up for her, Arthur." Cobb now directed his anger towards the point man. "You are supposed to be on my side, Ariadne's side." He reminded Arthur of his allegiance. Arthur was about to open his mouth for a reply, but he got cut off by Eames.

"EVERYONE SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP." Eames' deep voice resonated across the entire room. Eames' angry face was probably the scariest of them all. "Shall we focus on getting Ariadne back?"

A moment of silence followed. The air was thick of tension between the different team members.

Then Ada spoke softly: "I'm sorry if I ever gave you the wrong impression, Cobb, but my intentions are pure. They have always been." She looked at Cobb, who was now breathing heavily. "You were the one who allowed me to join the team and I am not a person that abandons a team member. I want to help save Ariadne."

"Thank you, darling." Eames spoke on behalf of the rest of the team.

Cobb only ran his hand through his hair. He looked at Ada for a moment. The first time he saw her, he had a feeling that he would need her on his team. Something inside of him told him not to let her go. He had the same feeling when he met Ariadne and she was definitely an important asset on his team. His instincts never failed him before. Cobb decided he should give Ada the benefit of the doubt.

After a big sigh, Cobb withdrew his phone and punched in some numbers, confusing everyone.

"I hope it's important, Cobb." A voice said on the other side of the phone, followed by a yawn.

"It is. We need your help, Yusuf. Where are you?"

"I'm in New York. What is the problem?" Yusuf suddenly became more alert. If Cobb called, he was almost one hundred percent sure there was something wrong.  
Cobb briefly explained the situation. "Is there any way for us to get some of your sedatives?"

"No, I'm sorry. It will take too long for me to fly over. You would have to wait a day for me."

"Goddamnit." Cobb cursed. He figured they only had a couple of hours max to save the architect. He knew other chemists, but Yusuf was the best one. They needed a strong sedative and Yusuf was the only one who could provide that.

"But I have another solution." Yusuf said. "If Ariadne is indeed in Limbo, she should still be sleeping. The levels above Limbo are not very stable on their own. You could try to go down without a sedative, but there is a chance the levels will shatter. Then you either wake up or you go straight down to Limbo."

"Are you saying there is a possibility that we can only get out if we kill ourselves before the dream breaks down?"

"Yes, it could be possible. Listen carefully. Something like this has never happened before. Be on your guard. You don't know what will happen. It is very dangerous to mess around with unstable dreams in this case. I suggest you to try to get a hold of the drug 'Benzodiazepine'. It is a very powerful sedative, available on the market. It is not as strong as my own compound, but it will do."

"The levels will then be stable enough?" Cobb asked to be sure.

"They should be. Then at least you will know what you are up against. However, the problem is that it is only available on prescription."

"Got it. Thank you." Cobb said.

"Good luck Cobb. I'm very sorry I can't be there to help you."

The two of them said goodbye. As soon as Cobb hung up, Eames popped the question: "So what's the plan?"

"Yusuf won't be able to help us. We need to get a sedative called 'Benzodiazepine'. It should stabilize the dreams enough for us go down, but we need a prescription first."

"What? We don't have time to fake a prescription." Eames said. Something like that would take a few hours.

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of that." Ada said.  
The men looked at her in confusion as she rummaged through their luggage. She pulled out her laptop and a small antenna-like device. As her fingers flew over the keyboard with top speed, Cobb asked: "How do you plan to do that?"

"First I need the name of a certified doctor and his electronic signature. Then I search for the nearest pharmacy and break into their computer. I simply add the fake prescription with the doctor's signature in their database and we will be able to pick up the sedative." She said while working.

Cobb could only see screens flashing by on the laptop and a light flashing on the small device. After a few more moments, Ada said: "Done. I put it on the name Trevor Mccoy. The pharmacy is at the end of the street."

Cobb smiled. "Excellent." He completely forgot about the reason of his outburst earlier.

The rest waited in their room while Cobb went out to get the drug. When he came back, everything was already set up. Cobb brought in a guy, who probably worked at the hotel, judging from his clothes.

"Ada, I want you to come with us, just in case. He will stay behind." Cobb said and explained the man briefly how the machine worked.  
Then he addressed his team. "Alright, we don't know where Ariadne is exactly, so we need to enter a dream first to find out her exact location. After that, we wake up again, then use the sedative to go back in."

"Who's dream are we entering?" Ada asked.

"Yours." Cobb replied.

"No, that's not possible. I've never created a dream before." Ada protested. How could she ever build something as enormous as what Cobb showed her when he trained her?  
"I suck at making mazes." She added.

"It doesn't matter. Ariadne has never entered your dreams before. She doesn't know what you will create and therefore she will not be able to anticipate our moves. Just create a big place where we can easily run and hide. And create lots of weapons. We will need it." Cobb said.  
"Now, the gentleman is going to give us 10 minutes, which will roughly be about 2 hours in the dream." Cobb wished he could have more time, but he was also afraid of the danger Yusuf warned him about. He did not know exactly what would happen if the dream shattered without the aid of a sedative and he definitely did not want to find out.

"So we are going to improvise?" Arthur asked Cobb. He knew this was often the case with Cobb's last-minute plans.

"Yeah, mostly." Cobb replied.

"What happens if we all get stuck in Limbo? Will you be able to get us out?" Arthur looked deep into Cobb's eyes. He knew his friend would never lie to him, but it made him feel more relaxed to know the truth.

"I will." He said as he strapped himself onto the dream machine. "Trust your totem."

All of them entered the dream. They were in a big warehouse and every one of them carried multiple guns and bulletproof vests. Ariadne was still unconscious. Arthur looked outside through a small window. It was a big city with big streets. The scene looked somewhat plain due to lack of details, but it still reminded him of a movie set.

"You like action movies?" Arthur asked Ada as he recognized different parts from several movies.

Ada blushed. "Well, you guys didn't give me a lot of time to work with."

"It's cute." Arthur laughed as he observed the bulletproof vest he was wearing. This was the first time he wore a vest in a dream.

Suddenly the roof cracked. They heard a loud bang. A big part of the roof came down, followed by projections coming down from the roof. The doors were kicked opened and windows were shattered. More and more projections started to pour inside the warehouse. Multiple gunshots were heard and bullets started flying.

"Get out now!" Cobb yelled and everyone started to move. They went for the window closest to them. The men shot down all the projections in the way and climbed out. Eames had to give Ada a small push to help her. As they made it onto the streets, a car was approaching them fast. Arthur reacted quickly and shot down the driver. The car then swung sideways, almost hitting Arthur.

"Get in!" Arthur ordered as he dragged out the projection from the car. Everyone got inside of the car with Arthur as the new driver.

They could not get very far with the car. Arthur barely made it onto the streets when two cars sped towards them at full speed. The point man managed to evade the cars, but a third one was coming. The third car turned sideways just before hitting Arthur, blocking the street. Arthur quickly put the car in reverse, but he could not escape. The two cars he passed earlier now jammed their noses as far as possible into the car Arthur was driving. They were sandwiched between the cars, unable to move. Projections emerged from behind the three cars and started shooting at the team.

"Shoot them down!" Arthur yelled and tried to ram his way out.  
Cobb and Eames obeyed and shot down a couple of the projections.

"Ada, just point and shoot." Cobb instructed. They would need all the help they could get.  
Ada pointed her gun at one of the projections, closed her eyes and fired. Luckily she was able to hit the projection right in the chest.

"Don't close your eyes. This is a dream, remember? You are not actually killing someone." Cobb said while firing some more bullets.  
Ada tried again, but she was still having trouble with shooting down projections. "Why aren't we moving?" She asked in frustration. She wanted to get out there, but the car did not move, even though the engine roared at Arthur's command.

"This car doesn't have enough power. Quick, alter it into an armoured Chevrolet Suburban." Arthur ordered.

"A what now? English please." Ada said. Like most women, Ada had no clue about cars.

Arthur also got frustrated. How could he make her understand what kind of car he wanted? Then he remembered how she got her inspiration for the dream from action movies.  
"Make it one of those cars you see in action movies. The ones they use to protect the president with."

Suddenly they were all sitting in a black armoured muscle car. Arthur grinned at his own brilliance. Then he stepped on the gas pedal. The engine roared beneath them and the smell of gasoline appeared. Then they rammed the car in front of them out of the way and flew across the street. The sudden leap forward smacked everyone back against their seat.

"Is everyone okay?" Arthur asked while speeding up. He could see three cars following them in the rear-view mirror.

"Yes we're all fine." Cobb said. "Ada, is there another hide-out somewhere?"

Suddenly Arthur made a sharp turn to the left, almost toppling the car. They heard a loud boom from the spot where the car was a second ago. The projections started using explosives. Arthur skilfully dodged all of them while Eames threw back a few grenades of his own. Eventually Arthur managed to outrun the projections. The car was now in very bad shape. They would need to find a safer place soon.

"At the end of the street go left" Ada then ordered. Arthur followed her instructions. She guided them to a big skyscraper.

"That's the one." She said.  
Everyone rushed inside. Ada let the way and ran towards the staircase. "Downstairs is a basement that we can secure."

"Wait!" Eames motioned them to stop. Something caught his attention. "I think I saw Wailun's projection. He just went around the corner."

"Get him. If Ariadne knows where she is, we can find it out through him." Cobb said.

They all went after him. When they went around the corner, they were facing two big doors. Eames looked at the others. Everyone grabbed their gun a bit more tightly than needed. Then Eames kicked the doors open. Immediately a dozen of projections started shooting at them. They all dove sideways and pressed their backs against the wall.

"Cover me." Arthur said before diving inside the room.  
Eames and Cobb fired away at the projections. Arthur got up in the room and killed the remaining ones. All of them spotted Wailun between the other projections and they made sure not to kill him in the process. Wailun only ended up with a bullet in his leg. He laid on the floor while Eames pointed his gun at the man's head, just in case.

"I told you guys to cover me." Arthur hissed at the pain and attracted the attention of his team. His right hand was pressed tightly to his left arm. His neat white shirt was now stained in blood.


	6. No heart feelings?

**Previously:**

_They all dove sideways and pressed their backs against the wall_.

_"Cover me." Arthur said before diving inside the room. Eames and Cobb fired away at the projections. Arthur got up in the room and killed the remaining ones. All of them spotted Wailun between the other projections and they made sure not to kill him in the process. Wailun only ended up with a bullet in his leg. He laid on the floor while Eames pointed his gun at the man's head, just in case._

_"I told you guys to cover me." Arthur hissed at the pain and attracted the attention of his team. His right hand was pressed tightly to his left arm. His neat white shirt was now stained with blood._

* * *

"Arthur!" Ada said in shock of seeing all the blood.

"We need to get the bullet out." Cobb said and examined the wound. There was too much blood. Small red droplets dripped onto the floor.

"No, I can just kill myself and come back again." Arthur suggested.  
"No, don't." Cobb ordered. "We don't know what will happen if you die now. You might end up in Limbo and then I-" Cobb stopped and clenched his jaw. He walked away as memories of Mal began to emerge in his mind.

"Then what?" Arthur demanded.

Cobb looked into the eyes of his friend. "If you die now, then I don't know if I will be able to get you out." Cobb tried to distract himself so he would not think back of what happened to Mal. He was never able to get her back completely. He was still not able to forgive himself entirely for that. It would be too much for him if he would lose another friend that way, perhaps even two. Cobb turned to the inventor in search for distraction. "Ada, I need whiskey and a first aid kit."

"Hold on, isn't it dangerous to alter the dream so many times? Will the projections come after us?" Ada panicked a bit. She was tied between helping Arthur and protecting the rest of her team.

"I have never seen such strong projections before." Cobb began. "Ariadne knows she is dreaming. That is why her projections are so lethal. I am sure they cannot get more dangerous than this."  
"In that case, we should go to the basement first." Ada decided.

When they entered the basement, Ada already prepared a few comfortable seats and a bottle of whiskey and first aid kit. Eames managed to drag Wailun down there and tied him onto one of the chairs while Cobb barricaded the door.

"Are you alright?" Ada asked the wounded point man carefully.

Arthur looked at her in irritation. The pain was making him edgy, but he resisted the urge to bark back a sarcastic reply when he saw the amount of worry in her eyes. Instead he said: "I have felt better."

"Don't worry, darling. Arthur is a tough one." Eames comforted the girl. He handed Arthur the bottle of whiskey.

Arthur took a few good swigs of the golden liquid while Cobb sat next to him. He tore open the sleeve all the way up to the shoulder, exposing Arthur's bloody arm. Then he grabbed a cloth from the first aid kit, drenched it with whiskey and pressed it firmly onto the wound. Arthur hissed in pain when it came in contact with his skin. Out of reflex his other hand grabbed the arm of the chair tightly. The whiskey was not enough to numb out all the pain.

Ada had a hard time dealing with all this. Normally she would get nauseous at the sight of blood. If this had not been a dream, she would have passed out a long time ago. However, the absolute worst thing was to watch how Arthur suffered in pain and there was nothing that she could do, not even in her own dream. She was forced to sit there and watch the rest work.

Eames grabbed a pocket knife and sterilized it with a lighter. Cobb took over the knife and brought it closer to the wound.

"Wait!" Arthur yelled. He took a few deep breaths, preparing himself for the soon to come pain.

"Don't be a wuss, darling." Eames helped him by trying to distract him.

"Why don't you go bother someone e-" Arthur began, but his sentence got cut off by a loud scream of anguish as Cobb inserted the knife. His body jerked in response of the pain, making Cobb retrieve the knife. Eames' jaw clenched, imagining how much that must have hurt. Ada sat with her hands covering her ears and her eyes shut.

"You have to hold still. Eames, Ada, hold him down." Cobb said. The other two came to his rescue reluctantly. They pinned Arthur down against the chair. Cobb then tried again, but the second time was perhaps even worse.

Arthur let out another ear piercing scream. Eames had to use all his power to make sure Arthur would stay in place. Suddenly all his power vanished. His mouth was open in shock as he realised Arthur's lips were locked with Ada's. Arthur's eyes were wide open for one moment, but then relaxed and closed. Eames had no idea what was going on, but it worked. Arthur completely forgot about the pain and did not move an inch.

After what seemed like an eternity, Cobb coughed, snapping everyone out of the moment. Ada got off of Arthur and walked away with burning cheeks. She had no idea why she just kissed him. Arthur was the one who had been pouring whiskey down his throat, but it was as if she was the drunk one. It happened so fast. One moment she was holding him still, the other moment she found herself on top of him with her lips on his. She touched her lips out of reflex. They were still warm from his touch.  
Meanwhile Cobb pretended like nothing happened and bandaged the wound. It was important for them to keep their heads clear. "Now let's see if Mr. Cheng is willing to talk."

Eames grinned at Arthur, who gave him a death glare back as best as he could. The alcohol was affecting Arthur more and more. Eames then grabbed his gun and walked over to Wailun. Right at that moment, they heard the song 'je ne regrette rien' play. It meant that they still had 5 minutes left.

"Speak up, what did you do to Ariadne?" Eames pointed the gun at the man again.  
The man could only smirk. When he did not answer, Cobb came over and punched him in the face. Pain and fear were the best instruments for getting information fast.

"You better talk, or this will be a very unpleasant trip for you."

Wailun continued to smirk. "There is no way you can get your little girl friend back." He laughed. "Do you think you can threaten me? My men are outside and they will barge their way in any minute now."

It was true. The projections were probably close. Cobb used his intimidation techniques. He grabbed the man by his collar and shook him violently while he screamed in his face: "Listen, asshole! You will tell me right now where Ariadne is, or I will blow your brains out." Cobb pulled out his gun and rested it on the man's temple.

"Go ahead." Wailun dared him. He knew this would end soon, because Ariadne was familiar with the song that was playing in the background.  
Cobb then pulled the slide of the gun to load it and fired it into Wailun's good leg. The man screamed in pain and jerked on floor.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Cobb repeated his threat. He pulled the slide again to load the gun once more.

Wailun's eyes widened in fear of more pain. He did not like the idea of feeling excruciating pain for the next few minutes. He held his hand up.  
"O-okay. Wait." He took a deep breath. "We sent the girl down into the 'Black hole'."

Cobb squinted and gritted his teeth. "You lie. That place does not exist."

"Yes it does. You might as well give up. It is impossible to get her out. Give up before you get stuck in it yourself." Wailun said.

Cobb scanned Wailun's face. He was telling the truth. Cobb knocked him unconscious in anger and threw him on the floor. Then he checked his watch. Three minutes. They then all heard banging on the door. It would not take the projections long to break through that door.

"Ada, some protection would be nice." Cobb commented.  
Ada created a large concrete wall between them and the door. It would not stop the projections, but it would hold them off for a while.

"What is the Black hole?" Eames asked.

"I've heard of that place." Arthur said. His words were somewhat slurred thanks to the effects of the alcohol. Arthur had a hard time concentrating.

"It's a myth. That's all." Cobb interrupted them. He refused to believe that Ariadne was indeed there. If that was true, then the chance of getting her back would decrease significantly.

Arthur ignored Cobb and continued: "The Black hole is supposedly one level deeper than Limbo."  
"You can go deeper than Limbo?" Eames asked in surprise.

Behind them they heard the door break, followed by many footsteps.  
Arthur shrugged. "Nobody knows, because nobody has visited that place and has lived to tell the tale. But there are some rumours about this mysterious place."

"What is down there then?"

"There is nothing down there. Complete darkness."

The wall began to show cracks, alarming the team. It would not take long now. They heard loud bangs, meaning the projections used heavier weapons. The song was almost at the end. Just a few more seconds. There was a loud bang and pieces of concrete started flying everywhere. The last thing they could see was a ball of fire surrounding them.

Ada opened her eyes, gasping for air. She was back in the hotel room. She rubbed her arms. Just a moment ago her skin was still on fire. The others were also awake.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked her when he took in her trembling frame. He hoped she was not traumatized by what happened down there.  
She nodded back in response. "What about you?" She eyed his left arm, which was clean and still wrapped in the dark blue shirt he had on.

"I'm fine." He answered. They looked at each other and smiled, happy that they were alright.

Then Ada remembered the embarrassing moment and looked away.  
This made Arthur feel uncomfortable as well. To be honest, he enjoyed the kiss they shared. Perhaps it was because he was heavily intoxicated at the time.  
When he kissed Ariadne, it was in the spur of a moment. He wanted to distract the projections and the first thing that came into his mind was… well that. Ariadne is a pretty girl and he was only human after all. At that time he was the one who initiated it. This time, he was the one who was caught off guard. It felt… exciting and exhilarating.

However, there was also guilt. He felt horrible thinking about the last kiss while he should be focussing on rescuing Ariadne. He felt even more like an ass realizing what he had done to Ariadne. He did not see Ariadne as anything more than a friend. Arthur was not stupid enough to build a relationship in dreams. He saw what happened to Cobb and Mal. If he really wanted to date his female colleague, he would have kissed her in reality. There were still unanswered questions. Did she have a crush on him? He did not know, but he was absolutely sure that she was very confused by his action. He had no right to hurt her like that.

With Ada on the other hand, it was obvious that she did feel something for him. Arthur hated himself at that moment. He had the feeling he would have to hurt another girl. How on earth did he wind up in this mess? Normally he was in control of every situation. Not being in control this time, made him feel very uncomfortable.

"We should go back again. Now we know where she is." Eames interrupted, reminding everyone there was still unsettled business left to do.

"We don't know that for sure." Cobb said.

Arthur snapped out of his train of thoughts. He kept on repeating 'save Ariadne' in his head like a mantra to concentrate.  
"What are you talking about? Her subconscious just told us." He eyed his friend.

"And I just told you. That place does not exist." Cobb suddenly became angry and walked away from the others.

Arthur decided to approach him. "What if it does? What if Ariadne is indeed down in the Black hole?"  
Cobb did not answer.

"Cobb, I know it is a frightening thought, but it's the truth. Instead of staying here thinking about the chances of getting her out, we should dive back in and actually try to get her out."  
Cobb still would not answer.

Arthur desperately wanted to rescue Ariadne. He had been struggling with the immense guilt he felt, because it was partly his fault that she ended up in the Black hole. The guilt had been building inside of him, stressing him out. However, he felt that he should not push Cobb into things. There might be something else going on.  
"Have you ever been in the Black hole?" He asked.

"No, nobody has." Cobb replied.  
"Then what is troubling your mind?" The point man asked. He was getting impatient.

Cobb sighed. Finally he said: "The kids." What if the place really existed and he got stuck in it? He made a promise to his children to never leave them again.

"It will be okay." Ada suddenly joined in. The two men looked at her.  
"I mean, I heard you guys were the best in the field. If there is someone who can pull this off, it's you guys. I understand your worries, but I have a feeling that everything will be okay. You just have to believe it yourself." She smiled.

Arthur smiled back. That girl really watches too many movies. Her lines were cheesy and probably came straight out of some movie, but it was true. Cobb realised that last part as well. He nodded and then grabbed the sedative. He took out a pill out of the bottle and got some water as well. Then he placed the pill in Ariadne's mouth and poured some water in. Ariadne swallowed out of reflex, but the body did not anticipate the fluids invading her mouth. She coughed a few times, but it was nothing serious.

"Do we have a new plan?" Eames asked.

"We will go back for 5 minutes, which will give us 1 hour in level 1 and about 5 months in Limbo. Eames, we go into your dream first. Then us three go down to Limbo. Ada, you will stay behind in Limbo while Arthur and I go down to get Ariadne." Cobb explained briefly. He was used to formulating plans in such a short notice.

"Got it." The others said.

"Eames, you might have some trouble with the projections, so build a secure base for us." Cobb reminded him.  
"Yes, Sir." He saluted.

Then they were off again.


	7. Girl troubles

**A/N Some people have been asking me how I came up with the name of the new character. I wonder if anyone of you can figure it out. There is a reason why I gave the inventor the name 'Ada'. Anyone who can figure it out, will get cookies.  
For those who can't, I'll explain in the next update.**

**Previously:**

_"Do we have a new plan?" Eames asked._

_"We will go back for 5 minutes, which will give us 1 hour in level 1 and about 5 months in Limbo. Eames, we go into your dream first. Then us three go down to Limbo. Ada, you will stay behind in Limbo while Arthur and I go down to get Ariadne." Cobb explained briefly. He was used to formulating plans in such a short notice._  
_ "Got it." The others said._  
_ "Eames, you might have some trouble with the projections, so build a secure base for us." Cobb reminded him._  
_ "Yes, Sir." He saluted._

_Then they were off again._

_

* * *

_

After the hotel employee pushed the button on the dream machine, they opened their eyes and found themselves in a large bunker. There were no windows, only holes in the walls, big enough for someone to shoot projections outside. One side of the wall was covered with all sorts of weapons, from small magnum guns to large rocket launchers.

Ada took in her surroundings. The defence and offence was a lot better than in her dream. "Impressive."

"Thank you, love." Eames winked. He then took one of the heavier weapons and went to his post to guard the bunker. "Kick some ass for me." Those were his last words.

Cobb grabbed a few pistols and threw one at Arthur and Ada. "Let's go."

The three of them shot themselves to go down to Limbo.

Ada found herself in the water. She struggled to come up for air. The tide was strong and big waves pushed her back and forth. Then she felt a strong arm grab her by the wrist and she got yanked out of the water.  
"You alright?" Her saviour Arthur asked.  
Ada coughed a few times to get rid of excess water in her lungs. She managed to breathe out: "Yes, I'm fine." She noticed they were on a beach.

Next to them Cobb was scrambling out of the water. "This way."  
All three of them were dripping wet as they made their way to the streets. Ada looked around and she could see the dream falling apart. Big buildings collapsed and crumbled down as they walked towards the city. It was kind of sad to see how such an enormous city was shattering into pieces. She wished it would stop. Suddenly everything stopped moving. The remains of the city stayed intact just like she wanted.

"Don't alter too much in the dream." Cobb said to the other two. "Do you have your totem with you?"

Arthur padded the right pocket of his pants and Ada took out her silver locket.  
"Good. Don't use it yet." Cobb ordered.

They made their way to the house Cobb had created together with Mal. As they entered, Cobb was trying to keep things together. There was nobody inside. Cobb was able to let Mal go, but the memories were still haunting him from time to time. He felt an assuring squeeze in his shoulder.

"It's alright." Arthur said. He figured this must have been the place Cobb and Mal spend years living in.

Ada also felt that this must be an important place for Cobb. She was wise enough not to ask any questions.  
Meanwhile Arthur looked around, in search for Ariadne's body. "How do you know Ariadne is here?"

Cobb entered the kitchen and the porch. "This is where she killed herself last time."  
He was right. He found an old lady in her fifties lying on the porch. Cobb recognized the old lady as Ariadne thanks to her long wavy hair in the same cut Ariadne always has and her clothes. He gently lifted her up and brought her inside the living room. As he placed her on the couch, Arthur took out the dream machine.

"How long has she been here?" Arthur was amazed at the transformation as he took in Ariadne's new form.

"Years, I would say." Cobb replied. He was glad they were in Limbo, which slowed down time tremendously. If they had been back in reality, there would be very little time left for her.

"Will the shock work down here?" Cobb asked the inventor.

Ada checked the machine. "If Limbo and the Black hole work the same way as normal levels in dreams, it should work."

"I sure hope it does." Cobb said while he put on the IV and the patch.  
Arthur followed his example while Ada attached Ariadne to the machine.

"Give us five minutes." Cobb told Ada.  
She nodded and then pressed the button to let them sleep.

Arthur and Cobb opened their eyes. All they could see was a white mist, blurring their view. Arthur looked up and down, but there was only white mist.

"I guess they were wrong about the darkness." He heard himself say. He was glad that all his senses worked, well most of them.

"Cobb?" He yelled. That white mist was getting annoying. Arthur tried to alter it away, but nothing happened.  
"I'm right here." A voice next to Arthur replied. He then felt someone touch his arm.  
"How on earth are we going to find Ariadne?"

"If she is really down here, she should be able to hear us." Cobb said. He yelled out the girl's name.  
They both waited. Nothing. Cobb continued calling her out and Arthur copied him. Cobb grabbed Arthur by the arm and tried to move forward. He could feel that he was moving, but it was hard to tell if that was true. The mist was messing with all his senses. Nevertheless he increased his pace and the two of them wandered like blind men in the Black hole. The two of them continued moving while shouting out Ariadne's name, but with no results.

Being down in the Black hole also messed with their sense of time. They had no idea how long they were stuck down there. It could be minutes or even hours. Cobb knew he would have an hour to find Ariadne, but one problem was: how much time was left?  
The other problem was the uncertainty of getting out of the Black hole. They did not know for sure whether the inventor was able to get them out from above. Perhaps their time already passed and Ada failed, forcing them to stay in the Black hole until they got mad.  
Cobb shook his head. He should not be thinking like this. The inventor had proven herself. He should give her more credit and trust her. Meanwhile he should focus on his job: finding the architect.  
They doubled their efforts and now moved at a faster pace. It was true that their hope of finding Ariadne became smaller the longer they stayed in the white mist, but the men were persistent.

As Arthur yelled 'Ariadne' once more, Cobb suddenly shushed him to silence. "I think I heard something."  
Arthur felt the spark of new hope. He yelled out even louder this time and listened intently. There it was. A soft sound coming from behind them.  
"Ariadne, can you hear me?" Arthur kept making noises, guiding Ariadne to them.  
The two of them moved into the directly of the sound. The voice became louder and louder as the men moved. Eventually they could understand what the voice had been trying to say. "Arthur? Where are you?"

"We're here!" Arthur replied.  
The distance between them became smaller and smaller. Eventually Ariadne's voice was so close. Cobb reached out with his hand. He felt something soft and made a grab for it.  
Ariadne yelped out in surprise.  
"It's me." Cobb answered and found out it was her hand. He grabbed her by the hand. Instantly he was relieved that they had finally found her.

"We will get you out of here." Arthur said, relieved as well. The guilt was slowly slipping away.

Suddenly Ariadne burst out in laughter. She continued to laugh like she was in her own world. "No impossible. There is no way out." She whispered. "I've tried, for so long."

"Waiting, always waiting." She murmured to herself. Arthur and Cobb started to get worried. Being down here for so many years with nothing else but your own thoughts, anyone would get nuts.

Ariadne then startled the men with her shouting. "Always waiting! And you never came! I trusted you!" After those words, she burst out in tears. "So stupid of me. So stupid to think that you would come back for me."

"Ariadne, calm down. We did come back for you." Cobb said.

"Stop. Why must you bring him?" She sneered. "Are you here to torture me even more?" She continued to wail.

"What are you talking about?" Cobb demanded. It was difficult to understand her in this state. She did not answer him. He figured she meant Arthur.

"Get out." Ariadne said. She knew it was impossible, but she wished they were gone. "Go away, now!" She lashed out and hit Cobb in the process.  
Cobb tried to restrain her to make her calm down, but it was very difficult to lock her arms without being able to see them.

"Ariadne, stop it!" Arthur commanded. He always had a hard time dealing with emotional women. Obviously he made a bad move, because the girl started to shriek in anger while trying to break out of Cobb's hold.

All of a sudden, the white mist vanished. Darkness replaced it.

Arthur opened his eyes and found himself in a soft bed. Cobb and Ariadne both woke up, each in their own bed.

"You guys did it!" Ada said happily. "Welcome back Ariadne. Hold on, I'll get you all some coffee." She took off.

Ariadne looked around in amazement. She stared down and she could see her own hands. She could see. She was out. She was finally out of that goddamned place.

"I-I'm sorry." She started. Being back in Limbo made her head more clear. She now realized how mean she treated her saviours.

"We understand." Arthur said, cutting her off. There was no need for an apology if it was partly his fault that she ended up in there the first place. If there was someone who had to apologize, it was him. However, that had to wait until there was a more private moment.  
Arthur noticed that Ariadne was young again. It was probably because she was aware that she was in Limbo now.

Cobb then jumped onto his feet, alarmed by his surroundings. They were not in his house anymore. This was not good.  
"What's wrong Cobb?" Arthur asked.

"Ada!" Cobb called the girl back.  
A moment later, she came back. "Yes? You'd rather have tea?"

"You altered the dream." Cobb concluded. This was definitely not good.

"What are you talking about?" Ada asked in confusion. "This isn't a dream. You're in my apartment. The shock brought you all back to reality."

"Shit." Cobb cursed. "I told you not to alter the dream. Once you start to alter it, it will become harder and harder to separate dreams from reality."

The girl must have tried things out while they were away. Once you had a taste of making dreams, it was very hard to resist.

"Cobb, this is reality." Ada insisted and looked at him like he had gone mad.

"No, Ada. We're still in Limbo." Arthur defended his friend, now also alarmed.  
Ada looked at all three of them. "I think you guys should see a doctor."

How could this happen? They were only gone for five minutes. How could she fall so deep in the trap of Limbo? Cobb was again racing against the clock. The longer they stayed, the more difficult it was to convince Ada that it was all a dream.

"This is a dream. How do you explain where Eames is then?" Cobb asked her.

"Eames?" Ada blinked and thought about it. "Now that you mention it. I don't know where he is."

"He is not here, because we are all still in Limbo." Cobb repeated. He could see that she refused to accept the truth. Her mouth opened again for a reply, but Cobb cut her off. "Grab your totem."

"What?" Ada asked, confused.

"Grab. Your. Totem." Cobb repeated and pronounced each word slowly.

"Fine." Ada said. She took out her silver locket and opened it, ready to show the extractor he was wrong.  
The others could not see what was inside of the locket, because Ada only showed them the back of the locket.

"What do you see?" Cobb asked.

"It's empty." Ada replied. "The picture must have fallen out. It should be on the floor somewhere."

Cobb clenched his teeth. He should have made her make a different totem. Her totem worked, but she was still fooling herself.

"Stop making excuses!" Cobb yelled, scaring the girl.

Arthur grabbed Cobb by the arm. "Calm down. We just need to reason with her."

"I think you should leave." Ada suddenly said. "I will call a cab for you. I suggest you all take the cab to the hospital to get yourselves checked. After that we can discuss how to continue the job."

Great. Now that they finally got Ariadne, they also have to save Ada. Cobb tried his best coming up with a new plan. Getting them out of Limbo was easy, because they only had to kill themselves. However, he could not bear to kill someone in a dream if that person truly believed he or she was going to die.

"Leave the cab. We will take care of ourselves." Cobb then said.

"What?" Arthur blurted out. Was he out of his mind? They should stay.

"Arthur, Ariadne, let's go." Cobb looked at the both of them, hoping they would come with him. Luckily the two of them did and they made their way to the door.  
Ada walked with them. As they got out, Cobb said: "We're sorry for bothering you."

"No, don't." Ada smiled. "The whole dream thing is just confusing. You guys have been going in and out the whole time. I can imagine you would get a little bit confused." She said.

"Make sure to visit a doctor." She added.

Cobb nodded and then the three of them left Ada's apartment.


	8. A break

**A/N Wow, some of you were really fast in figuring out the reason behind Ada's name. She is named after Ada Lovelace who wrote a scientific paper in 1843 on Charles Babbage's mechanical computer. She is considered as the world's first computer programmer.  
Kudos to all of you who figured it out. Now onward with the story :)**

**Previously:  
**_"You altered the dream." Cobb concluded. This was definitely not good._

_ "What are you talking about?" Ada asked in confusion. "This isn't a dream. You're in my apartment. The shock brought you all back to reality."  
_  
_"No, Ada. We're still in Limbo." Arthur defended his friend, now also alarmed._

_"Shit." Cobb cursed. "I told you not to alter the dream. Once you start to alter it, it will become harder and harder to separate dreams from reality."_

_

* * *

_

On the streets Cobb found out that Ada only altered the house. However, creating something from your memories was a very dangerous thing to do in dreams. Cobb turned towards Ariadne.

"Ariadne, how are you feeling?" Cobb stopped to see how his architect was doing. In the midst of the confusion, he forgot about her.

Ariadne looked at him. "I am alright now." She slowly smiled, as if trying to remember how to do it.  
"Thank you." She added.

Cobb smiled back at her. He would sort out things with her later. In order to get them all out successfully, he had to set priorities. Their number one priority right now concerned Ada.  
He then took them to a park not far from Ada's apartment. There they all sat together to formulate a new plan.  
Arthur still had difficulties concentrating. He was again torn between two choices. On one hand he wanted to save Ada and get the hell out, but on the other hand he was also waiting for the opportune moment to apologize to Ariadne. The guilt was still there. It was less than before, but still not completely diminished. He figured the only way to get rid of the guilt, was to confess everything to the architect.

"We will wait a day before we go back to her house." Cobb explained his plan. "She should be calmed down by then. It was too much to confront her with the truth so fast."

"We need to convince her that everything is a dream." Ariadne said. It was good to see that she was fine, although sometimes she had to take a moment to think things through or dig up long lost memories and information.  
"We could create something unrealistic, like messing with the laws of nature." She thought back of the way she bend the street in her first shared dream.

"No, don't alter the dream." Cobb said. "You might also start to believe Limbo is your reality."

"Cobb, I've been in Limbo before." Ariadne protested.

"You're as stubborn as ever." Cobb smiled at her. He missed her persistence. "But that's still a bad idea. I don't want to take the risk."

"How did you two get out of Limbo the previous time?" Arthur asked.

"To get out of Limbo, you need to kill yourself." Ariadne answered.

"Why can't we just kill Ada ourselves?" Arthur continued to ask.

Ariadne did not answer this question. She remembered that Cobb went through this before. When he got stuck in Limbo for the first time together with Mal, he found out that they had to kill themselves to get out. However, Cobb never got himself to do it. He loved her too much to do it. Instead he performed inception on her to make her believe that it was all a dream, not knowing what kind of impact that would have on her in reality.  
Cobb sighed at the memories. Then he answered the point man's question. "We cannot kill her, because she truly believes she is back in reality. She will think she'll die if you kill her. Imagine the feeling of betrayal of seeing your friend taking away your life. Imagine the feeling of someone else deciding over your life; whether you should live or die." Cobb could see that Arthur was having doubts about his suggestion.  
"I wouldn't want Ada to experience that. You will lose her forever."

Arthur looked at Cobb. What was his last sentence suppose to mean?

"Then the only option is to slowly approach her and try to convince her." Ariadne concluded.

"Yes indeed." Cobb agreed.

"But that will be very difficult. You saw how deep she believed the façade." The girl said. "What if we are not able to convince her?"

"Then I am afraid we have no choice but to follow Arthur's suggestion."

In the evening they moved towards a big house. It was almost like a mansion.  
"This was our second home." Cobb explained as they entered. The house looked old and badly maintained.

"How many times have you moved in Limbo?" Ariadne asked as she observed the interior. She marvelled at the small details. There were a lot of things that were not possible in reality. She was intrigued with an artwork of tubes where coloured water would be running upwards, neglecting gravity.

"I've lost count, but I'm sure we moved more than twenty times." Cobb answered. "We kept on experimenting with different designs. There was no place where we truly stayed for a long time."  
He then made his way into the bedroom. "Make yourselves comfortable. I'll prepare the bedrooms."

Cobb was not a foolish man. He knew there was something going on between Arthur and Ariadne. He told himself he should be focussing on saving Ada, but tonight they all had a break. It would be a great opportunity for his colleagues to get rid of some issues. Therefore he excused himself and decided to give the two of them the time to sort things out.

Meanwhile Arthur made himself comfortable on the couch in the living room. Ariadne was busy looking at the decorations in the room and admired the pictures of Cobb and Mal. There were also a few of their children.

Arthur decided that this was the best moment to face his guilt and seized the chance Cobb threw at him. He cleared his throat to attract the girl's attention. Ariadne reacted to the sound and turned her head.

"Ariadne, can we talk?"

"Yes of course." The girl replied. She made her way over to the couch and sat next to him.

Arthur looked into her eyes and was taken aback by what he saw. Her eyes did not fit her youthful appearance. Her eyes held a lot of wisdom in them. They looked a lot older than the rest of her body. They were the same eyes as Cobb's. He had the feeling that Ariadne had changed. She was no longer the stubborn, curious, somewhat naïve girl he knew.

"What is it that you want to talk about?" Ariadne asked, because Arthur forgot to speak.

The point man restored himself. "I wanted to apologize." He began and noticed he clenched his jaw unconsciously out of discomfort. Apologizing had always been a difficult thing for him to do. "Do you remember what happened before we went deeper in the dream to extract Wailun's secret?"

"You mean our talk." It was not a question. She knew very well what Arthur was talking about.

"Yes." Arthur said, stalling. He was not good at these sort of things. He would much rather work through piles of data, than have this little talk with the girl, or actually, woman next to him. However, he knew he had no choice. "I am sorry for saying anything that could have hurt you."

Ariadne opened her mouth to reply, but Arthur raised his hand to let her stop. "Please let me finish. I also want to apologize for what happened when we performed inception on Fischer." The last sentence raced out of his mouth. There, he said it. He apologized.

"Why did you do it?" Ariadne asked, not letting him off the hook so easily.

Arthur blinked, not expecting the question. This was exactly why he was not good at these sort of things. He thought about his answer. "I wanted to distract the projections."

"Really?" Ariadne eyed him, not believing him.

Arthur felt his palms moisten. He hated to hurt a girl's feelings. "Yes." He said as confident as he could.

Ariadne looked into his eyes. It was as if those wise eyes were searching deep inside his soul.

"So you held no romantic feelings for me or whatsoever?" Ariadne asked. "Just pure business?"

She asked as if it was a very normal question. Her voice was not trembling, as if hoping for a positive answer. Perhaps Arthur did not understand women as well as he thought he did. This time he took even more time to formulate his answer. "No, I didn't. I'm sorry."

Ariadne shook her head. "Neither do I." She said. "At least not anymore." She sighed.

"To be honest there was a time when I wished you had such feelings for me." Ariadne confessed. She had to laugh at the memories. "I had this huge crush on you, you know." She smiled at him. "I also felt jealous, because you seemed so close with Ada at the time. That prohibited me from truly liking Ada as a good friend. I should apologize to her sometime." She trailed off.

"It hurt a lot every time I saw you two together, but I am also grateful that I felt that way about you."

Arthur was confused. Why would anyone be happy to be hurt like that? She did not really do a good job comforting him. In fact, he felt really bad now he knew for sure that he had hurt her. Ariadne could read the confusion in Arthur's eyes.

"It is what kept me sane down there." Ariadne explained.

"In the Black hole?" Arthur asked.

"Yes. It was a horrible place. I knew I was dreaming, but I could not get out. I could not create anything, even though it was a dream. I was able to feel, hear, taste and smell, but there was nothing there, absolutely nothing. In the beginning I kept telling myself that you would come to get me. Thinking about you, hoping that you would come, kept me sane." Then her expression changed.  
"But after a while I slowly began to lose hope. I was beginning to doubt whether you would come, whether you would even know where I am. Eventually I lost all hope and with that I also let go of you. I was convinced that I would stay there forever, waiting for my brain to burn out or when my body is too old to continue to live."

"But we came back for you." Arthur pointed out.

"Yes you did. As you noticed, I was already beginning to lose it." Ariadne then smiled again. "What I am trying to say is: if I hadn't had those feelings for you, I would have gone mad a long time ago. Then I would not fully function right now. So in a weird way, thank you." She said and laughed.

Arthur now also smiled. He was glad that the both of them now had mutual friendly feelings for each other. Now that he got everything sorted out between Ariadne and him, there was still one thing he did not understand.

"How did you end up in the Black hole?" He wanted to know. "Eames said you got separated from each other by the projections."

"Yes we were." Ariadne confirmed. She had to think a while to remember what happened. "The projections were very strong. Eames and I had to distract them so that Cobb could extract the information. Eventually the two of us were cornered by the projections. Realizing there was no way out, we tried to kill ourselves, but the projections got us first. They then separated us. That was the last time I saw Eames. The projections brought me to Wailun. He said he would send me to a place deeper than man has ever gone before."

"Yes, Eames mentioned something similar." Arthur brought in.

"Then he sent me down to Limbo. When we arrived, he made me take a sedative, so that I would go even deeper. All that time I tried to escape, so I could kill myself to go back up, but the projections were too strong. When I was down in the Black hole, I was glad that I was the only one there. That meant that Eames had found a way out."

"Yes, he woke up again and informed us. Then all of us went back inside the dreams to get you. He is in the first level now." Arthur filled her in.

"That's wonderful." Ariadne smiled at the good news. Arthur smiled back. The guilt was gone. It melted away like snow in the sun. That is one big problem less he had to worry about. He hoped the other problem would be as easy to solve as this one.

"Shall we go help Cobb with the bedsheets?" Ariadne asked. "I am sure he is terrible at doing housework." She laughed.


	9. Betrayal

**Previously:  
**

_"Why can't we just kill Ada ourselves?" Arthur continued to ask._

_Cobb sighed at the memories. Then he answered the point man's question. "We cannot kill her, because she truly believes she is back in reality. She will think she'll die if you kill her. Imagine the feeling of betrayal of seeing your friend taking away your life. Imagine the feeling of someone else deciding over your life; whether you should live or die." Cobb could see that Arthur was having doubts about his suggestion.__  
_

_"Then the only option is to slowly approach her and try to convince her." Ariadne concluded._

_"Yes indeed." Cobb agreed._

_"But that will be very difficult. You saw how deep she believed the façade." The girl said. "What if we are not able to convince her?"_

_"Then I am afraid we have no choice but to follow Arthur's suggestion."_

_

* * *

_

The three of them spend the night at the house.

The next day they went back to Ada's apartment. After knocking on the door, Ada opened it.  
"Hi guys. I did not expect to see you so soon." She said after recognizing them. She opened the door to let her guests in. "Did you visit a doctor?"

"Yes we did. Everything is fine now." Cobb lied as he made his way to the living room.

"Great." Ada smiled. Then she pointed at the seats. "Please, take a seat. Do you want something to drink?"

"Yes please. Water sounds good." Cobb said.

"For us as well." Ariadne brought in, playing along. Ada went to get the drinks while the rest made themselves comfortable.

Arthur observed her house. It was a small apartment, enough for one or two people. The decorations were very simple and looked inexpensive. However, he found a lot of small devices everywhere and normal household machinery that were altered.

The girl soon came back with drinks and took a seat herself.

"Ada, we came here to talk." Cobb announced.

"Talk about what?" Ada asked.

"We lied about visiting a doctor." The extractor confessed. Immediately the girl became suspicious.

"Are you here to try to convince me that we are all in a dream?" She asked, but she did not let Cobb answer. She could read it from his face. "Then I am here to convince you that this is reality. You're worrying me. This is all real, Cobb." Her voice was full of worry. "Please don't do anything rash, until you know for sure what is real and what is not."

She was talking about committing suicide, Cobb knew. Not only was she scared about dying herself, but she was also afraid of her friends dying.

"Actually we know the difference very well, better than you do." Cobb said. "I am not here to force you into anything, but at least let me show you what I am talking about."

This was almost like a game with Cobb and her as the players and Ariadne and Arthur as the observers. Ada decided to play along. It was also her chance to try to save her friends.  
"Alright, I will listen."

"Did you find the picture of your totem?" Cobb started.

"No I didn't." She answered. "I searched for it, but I have not managed to find it yet."

"Then you must agree with me that your totem could be telling you that you are dreaming."

"Or I really lost the picture." Ada countered Cobb's argument.

"True, but the possibility exists, don't you agree?" Cobb asked.

"Yes, you're right." Ada agreed. It was her turn to throw in an argument. "If this really is a dream like you say, then prove it to me by altering something."

"I can't." Cobb's eyes were locked with hers. "Limbo is a tricky place. Down here, you will start to believe the façade once you start altering things. The process is only quickened if you create something from your memories, which I believe is what happened in your case." Cobb said. He did not ask her to alter something. On one hand it would prove his point that they were dreaming, but it would also make her mind fall deeper in the trap.

"I want you to think carefully. Try to remember what happened before you pulled us out of a dream with the dream machine. Where were we and what were we doing? Did you notice anything strange?" Cobb asked.

Ada took her time to think about it. There were a few things that were strange. Where was Eames, for example. And she also could not remember travelling back to her apartment. On the other hand, she was often sunken into her own thoughts. Perhaps she did not pay attention and that was why she could not remember things.

"I don't know about the strange things. I don't always pay full attention to my surroundings." She scratched her head in slight embarrassment. "I am sure there are logical explanations for the things I noticed."

"Like what then? Perhaps we can give you a more logical explanation." Cobb felt he might have gotten closer.

"Well, you said yesterday that Eames was missing. I know we were busy rescuing Ariadne, but I don't recall how I got back to my apartment."  
"The reason why Eames is absent, is because we are in Limbo. Eames is above, guarding our bodies while we are down here. You cannot remember how you got here, because that is the way you can recognize dreams. Dreams always start in the middle of something. You altered the dream. That is why we are all in your apartment right now."

The girl thought about it. Arthur and Ariadne saw that she still would not accept the truth. Arthur was getting impatient. He knew the best way to do this was to reveal the truth to her slowly, but he was annoyed by the fact that a much easier solution was available: killing her right here, right now. He remembered what Cobb said and it held him back from doing it. He knew he would hurt her immensely. He would betray her trust and break her heart, literally and figuratively. Arthur hated to hurt people he trusted. There were not many people in the world he would trust his life with. He could count all of them with one hand. He would hate to lose one of them.

"Cobb, what if you're wrong?" Ada tried a different approach, instead of biting into the argument he fed her earlier. "What if you're wrong and you kill yourself trying to wake up? Don't put your life on the line. The risk is too great." She inched closer to Cobb, trying her best to convey the gravity of the problem to him.

"I won't be wrong. I know we are in Limbo." He simply said.

"How do you know for sure?"

"Because I have been here before." Cobb said. It was time to take it a step further. "Do you trust me?"

Ada was taken by surprise by his question. Did she trust him? Of course she did, but she knew what he would ask of her. Would she put her life on the line for him? It was a scary thought to put her life in his hands. What if Cobb was wrong? Then the lives of him, Arthur and Ariadne were in her hands. Then it would be her task to save them all. "I- I don't know. Of course I trust you, but this is absurd."

"Ada, I know I am making an immensely big request, one I should not be asking of you, but I have no choice. I am asking you to trust me now." Cobb asked and held eye contact with her. He knew that the contact would determine whether his request would be fulfilled or not. Ada looked at him. She wrung her hands. It was obvious that she was nervous about the thought of four lives dangling on one little thread, one that either she or Cobb would snip.

Arthur also started to fidget around. Wait, wait for it. He kept telling himself. He had to let Cobb do his job. All three of them were hoping that Ada would trust Cobb.

"Cobb, I'm sorry." She finally decided. "I cannot stand to watch how you three kill yourselves." She quickly grabbed the phone and punched in 3 numbers. "Hello, I need assistance. There are three murderers in my house. My address is Regal street 14." She said quickly. Before the other three had time, Ada already dashed towards the front door and locked them all in.

"What now?" Arthur demanded. There goes plan A. "Will the police really come?"

"Yes." Cobb quickly rose to his feet. "Her subconscious will fill this place up with projections."

"Will they be strong?" Ariadne asked, now also alarmed.

"They will be if we resist." Cobb said. Then he hastily approached Ada, in a last attempt to persuade her.

"Ada, please. Calm down. There is no need for this."

Ada already locked her doors and now defended the main entrance with her own body. "I am calm." She replied, voice raised in slight annoyance. "The police will be here soon. Everything will be alright. They will take you to the hospital."

"The policemen that will come barging in, are projections of your own mind. This is a dream!" Cobb started to raise his voice. They were coming.  
Arthur and Ariadne listened to their discussion from inside the living room. The discussion started to heat up and their voices became louder and louder. Arthur then decided to take things into his own hands. He made his way to the hallway, but Ariadne grabbed his arm.

"What do you think you're doing?" The woman asked.

"I'm going to end this." He replied.

Ariadne then noticed something appear in Arthur's hand. It was a small gun that he had altered. She gasped in shock and released him. "Not you too." She whispered and stared at him.

"Don't worry. This won't take long. I'm not planning on staying here for more than a minute." He loaded the gun and continued his way to the hallway.

As soon as he stepped inside the hallway, both Cobb and Ada immediately stopped yelling at each other. They both looked at Arthur, wondering what he was doing there, but a split second later, both their expressions turned into fear as they noticed the gun in his hand. In one swift movement, Arthur pointed the gun at his target and fired. Ada managed to let out a high pitched scream, but it was too late. The bullet flew towards her face. Ada squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for death. She heard a bang just a few inches next to her ear and realized that the bullet barely missed her. Her body then went into survival mode. Immediately she grabbed a set of keys hanging on the wall and threw them at Arthur.

Arthur was caught off guard and got distracted by the flying object. Ada then dove into the closest room and locked the door. As she panted, she frantically scanned the room, searching for objects to barricade the door with.

Meanwhile Cobb was busy yelling at Arthur. "What are you doing? I told you not to shoot her against her will!"

"Step away, Cobb." Arthur commanded. "It is clear that she won't believe us, no matter how hard we try." He was determined to end this. The first time he fired, he could not do it. At the very last moment, he got frightened and missed her on purpose. It was hard to shoot her, even in a dream. No actually, Cobb was right. Rephrase. It was difficult to shoot her in a dream if she thought she was going to die. In any other dream, it would have been easy. Now it would not matter anymore. He had broken the trust she had for him. She would hate him forever, whether she stayed in Limbo or go back to reality. Arthur decided to bring her back to reality. At least the sacrifice of their friendship would not be in vain. He would have to move fast. Altering the dream would leave an effect on him. He would rather be damned than stay in this hole until his brain burned out.

The point man turned the door knob, but the door was locked. He shot at the lock, then tried to open the door again, but there was something blocking him on the other side. The object could not have been very heavy. Ada might have been pumped up with adrenaline, making her stronger, but she would still not be as strong as Arthur. He used all his power and forced his way inside the room. As soon as he was inside, he found her in the process of climbing out of the window.  
'Coincidentally' Ada found a piece of rope and had made a nice construction to bring herself to safety through the window. She then changed her mind, as she found the gun pointed at her again.

"Arthur, don't do this." She spoke to him as she raised her hands. Her voice was trembling with fear. "Please." She added. "I thought we were friends. You need to trust me. This is all real. If you shoot me now, you will regret it." Tears now started to stream down her face. Her hands started to shake above her head. She felt so vulnerable and confused. Why? Why Arthur? Questions raced through her mind. Pain started to worm its way inside her heart. Pain of betrayal, pain of unanswered love, pain of feeling helpless, pain of embarrassment for being stupid enough to trust him.

On the inside, the sight of her face and tears pained Arthur so much, but he kept a poker face. It was killing him to be the one who made her cry like that. Cobb and Ariadne were both standing behind him, watching while they held their breath.

"Arthur." Cobb tried to talk his friend out of it, but Ariadne stopped him by pulling his arm. She knew Arthur was determined. Not even Cobb could change his mind.

Arthur paid no attention to Cobb and loaded the gun, making Ada cry even harder.

"Arthur, please don't." She begged him. The chaos of her mind then vanished and got replaced by memories. The last memory going through her mind was when Arthur asked her if she trusted him.

"Ada, I'm so, so sorry." Arthur said and pulled the trigger.


	10. Whirlwind of emotions

**A/N Thank you guys for your comments. I love to read what you are thinking, whether you agree, disagree, give feedback or compliment ^^ It feels good to connect with my readers.  
Other than that I want to warn you in advance for this chapter. Urgh so much drama, but it is needed. Next chapter will be different, I promise.  
Have fun reading. **

**Previously:  
**_"Arthur, don't do this." She spoke to him as she raised her hands. Her voice was trembling with fear. "Please." She added. "I thought we were friends. You need to trust me. This is all real. If you shoot me now, you will regret it." Tears now started to stream down her face. _

_"Arthur." Cobb tried to talk his friend out of it, but Ariadne stopped him by pulling his arm. She knew Arthur was determined. Not even Cobb could change his mind._

_Arthur paid no attention to Cobb and loaded the gun, making Ada cry even harder. It was killing him to be the one who made her cry like that._

_"Arthur, please don't." She begged him. The chaos of her mind then vanished and got replaced by memories. The last memory going through her mind was when Arthur asked her if she trusted him._

_"Ada, I'm so, so sorry." Arthur said and pulled the trigger._

* * *

With a deafening scream Ada woke up. Emotions raced inside of her. It was as if her heart was about to explode with pain and a second ago it did. Arthur hit her right in the heart. She started to sob uncontrollably while she curled up in a ball on the floor as everything replayed in her head.

"Jezus, darling! What happened?" Eames was suddenly by her side, trying to comfort her. "You scared the hell out of me."

She was back in the bunker. In the background she could hear faint sounds of guns and explosions going off. It was no use trying to get an answer out of her. She let her emotions run freely and tears flowed down her cheeks. Then she noticed that Ariadne was crouched beside her as well.

"It's alright." The architect said and pulled the girl into a hug.

"Ariadne, love!" Eames exclaimed in happiness. He too was happy that she was back. He too suffered from the guilt, thinking that it was his fault that she ended up in the Black hole.  
"Good to see you too Eames." Ariadne replied with a smile, but then quickly returned her attention to Ada.

Cobb and Arthur had also woken up in the meantime. Outside there were still projections trying to kill them.

"Eames, Arthur, we need to guard the bunker. How long have we been out?" Cobb asked.

"Just a couple of minutes." Eames replied.

They had an hour of time in level 1. It meant they had to defend the bunker until their time ran out. Eames returned to his position. Cobb gave the point man a look of pity and compassion, before joining the forger. Arthur lingered to look at Ada and felt horrible. The image of her frightened expression together with the memory of her high pitched scream of pure fear, was almost too much.

Ada then looked up into his eyes. "How could you?" She demanded between sobs.

Three words were enough to make Arthur feel the heavy weight of shame and guilt. He had no answer for her question.

"Arthur, go." Ariadne commanded and nodded in the direction of the other two men.  
Arthur obeyed and left while Ada's glare of hatred burned in his back.

After an hour they all woke up. Ada had stopped crying, thanks to Ariadne's efforts to comfort her, but she still despised the point man for what he did. Cobb took care of the hotel employee that woke them up.

"Can I finally ask what happened in Limbo?" Eames eyed his colleagues, wondering what on earth could upset Ada so much.  
The inventor's head shot up at the question and it looked like she was about to burst into tears again. Ariadne motioned Eames to silence by pressing her index finger to her lips.  
Arthur figured he could at least explain to Ada why he shot her and of course also apologize properly. Not that it would help much, he thought grimly.  
"Ada, I am…" He paused. He hoped he could have a private moment with Ada, but unfortunately he had to apologize to her in front of the rest of the team. "-sorry about what happened." He struggled with the s-word.

"Stop." Ada commanded as her watery eyes glared at him. "I don't want to hear it."

"Ada, please hear me out."

"How could you?" She asked again. "I thought I could trust you." She raised her voice and a tear rolled down her cheek.

"I only wanted to bring you back to reality." Arthur also raised his voice. He was not used to people talking to him in such a manner, not anyone close to him anyway.

"Oh yeah, thanks." The sarcasm was evident in her tone. "Thank you for 'rescuing me'. For all you know, I might have been dead by now!"

"No you would not, because it was not a gamble. We knew for sure we were dreaming." Arthur automatically defended himself, even though he knew he should not. He could not help it.

"Well, then thank you for taking matters into your own hands. Apparently my opinion does not matter anymore. Apparently I can't decide over my own fucking life!"

"Of course your opinion matters. If I had not done anything, you would be stuck in Limbo, waiting for your brain to burn out."

"Don't you get it?" Ada shouted at him. "This is not about saving my life. You were supposed to be.." She stopped to think about her sentence. What was he exactly to her? "You were supposed to be my friend. You could have shot me while I was sleeping in Limbo." She glared at him.

They heard a gasp coming from Eames, who now finally understood the situation. Arthur clenched his jaw and breathed heavily through his nose, for she was right. It could have been different. Arthur could only blame himself for making a hasty decision at the time.

"I am still your friend." Arthur said as calmly as he could with all the emotions building up inside of him.

"No you are not." Ada stated. "A real friend would care about me." She knew the exact words to push his buttons. Her words knifed themselves directly into his heart.

Then something snapped inside of Arthur. His hand slammed onto the nightstand next to the bed, scaring everyone in the room.  
"Don't you dare to say that! I did it because I cared!" How could this dense girl not understand that? It was not like he murdered her in cold blood. Did she really think it was just a matter of pulling the trigger for him?  
He then pointed at the extractor. "Cobb didn't have the balls to shoot you, so I did. I shot you because I could not stand to watch you die in reality!"

There was a silence. Ada could only stare back into the point man's eyes, completely in shock.

"You will probably hate me and I don't blame you for that. I also admit that it could have gone a lot smoother, but I don't want you to think that I did it because I didn't care." Arthur calmed down a bit.  
Nobody dared to say anything. Arthur then took a deep breath and made his way to the door. "I need some fresh air." He rushed out and almost knocked Cobb down, who was hiding in the hallway.  
Ada could not muster a reply back because she was stunned by his outburst.

"Bloody hell." Eames said. It was the only sensible thing he could say after what he just found out.

Cobb took a minute to think about the situation. He was supposed to steer everyone back on track so that they would focus on their job once more, but how could he if his team was about to fall apart? Meanwhile Ada sunk onto a chair, lost in her own thoughts. Ariadne then rose to her feet.

"What are you doing, darling?" Eames asked.  
Ariadne ignored his question and approached Ada. "You should go after him."

The inventor did not look into her eyes and could only sigh. "I can't." She finally replied.

"You must." Ariadne pushed. "You need to talk to him."

Ada was surprised by Ariadne's persistence. Before, the architect was comforting her and now she was pushing her into things. Ada looked into the girl's eyes and, just like Arthur, noticed that there was something different about Ariadne, now that she was not too busy crying to pay attention to her.  
"How can I? You saw how he acted." Ada asked. "I don't think he wants to talk to me right now."

"Just go. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to fix this." Ariadne tried to pull the girl out of the chair by her arm, but she resisted and shook Ariadne off.

"I said no."

"Ariadne, give her a break." Eames butted it.  
Cobb placed a hand on the forger's shoulder and shook his head. He agreed with the architect. The sooner his team reconciled with each other, the better.

Ariadne continued. "Are you scared?"

Ada was taken aback by the question. Who was she to decide what she should do? What was up with everyone suddenly telling her what to do? Yet Ada did not answer the question, because it was the truth.

"Are you scared that he's mad at you? Are you scared that you have pushed him away with your harsh words?" Ariadne pulled her arm again.  
Ada shook the brown haired girl off this time as well. "I am not scared." She lied. "I don't want to talk to him myself." She tried to cover it up.

"Why?" Now Ariadne was getting frustrated.

"Because he hurt me."

Ariadne balled her fists. How childish. "He hurt you and you hurt him back. Are you waiting for him to come back to apologize to you?"

Ada did not answer. Ariadne took it as a yes. "He hurt you first, so he should apologize first, is that it?"  
"No, that's not it." Ada quickly said to defend herself. The way Ariadne said it, also made Ada realize that she was being childish. Even if she went after Arthur, what was she supposed to say?

"You are both adults. Be the mature one and go apologize to him." The architect ordered.

"It is not that simple." Ada said. "I know he meant well, but it still hurts. You were there, Ariadne. I really thought I was going to die when he was about to shoot me. He also knew that." Then her eyes travelled down to stare at the ground. "I don't know if I can just forgive him like that." She said softly.

Suddenly there was a loud smack. Ada felt her left cheek burn. Ariadne just slapped her across the face. Instinctively the inventor's hand went up to rub the sore area as the girl stared back in shock. The others were surprised as well.

"Wow, relax ladies." Eames came in between them, just in case the two decided to fight.  
"Ariadne, calm down." Cobb also thought she went too far.

"No I won't calm down! You are making a mistake." The architect said to Ada. "I also thought I was going to die. Don't think you're the only one who knows what that feels like! I was stuck in that goddamned place for years. You only had to face death for a mere few seconds!" Ariadne started shouting and breathed heavily through her nose as sudden anger boiled inside of her.  
"You have no idea! You are nothing but a childish little infant! Stop your whining and grow up." Ariadne threatened the girl with her glares.

Ada could not do anything but squirm silently in her seat. This was already the third team member yelling at her.

"I thought I was dead, but I'm back. I've been given a new chance, a new shot at life. So have you and it is all thanks to Arthur. Don't treat things so lightly." Ariadne raised her arm, ready to strike again.  
Cobb's eyes widened in shock and in a reflex he grabbed hold of her by the wrist to block her. "Ariadne! What are you doing?"

"Let go of me!" Ariadne screamed at her capturer. Now tears started to pour down her cheeks as her watery eyes looked at Cobb's. He was able to see the confusion, the lost of hope, the relief, everything. He could see everything in those brown marble eyes of hers. Instantly he let go of her arm. His arms circled around her and pressed her firmly against his own body. Ariadne continued to sob in his chest. Cobb stroked the top of her head.

"I understand." He said. "Everything is fine now." He was the only one who could understand her. Being stuck in dreams for so long, for so many years, it changes you. When he and Mal got out of Limbo, they could find comfort in each other. Ariadne was alone down there and had nobody to console her. She had been keeping it all in this whole time. When he asked her whether she was alright in Limbo, she courageously smiled and ensured them that she was. How foolish of him not to see through her thick mask. She needed him back then and he was not there for her. Cobb grimaced at his stupidity, but quickly shrugged that thought off. Ariadne needed him now. The woman in his arms continued to cry her heart out while Cobb only hugged her. He was not really good at comforting women, so that was the best he could do.

Ada looked at the two in front of her. The slap worked like a shock, waking her up. Ariadne was right. She got off the chair onto her feet. Eames' and Cobb's eyes followed her all the way to the door. They both nodded in understanding when Ada looked back.

Ada went to the ground floor in search of Arthur. Her heart was racing. What was she going to say to him? Would he even be willing to talk to her? Actually, there were so many things she wanted to tell him, but she didn't know how to nor did she have the courage to do so. She wandered around in the hotel. He was not outside, nor at the lounge. Where could he have gone off to? Eventually she found him in the hotel bar, drinking a golden brown liquid. She guessed it was whiskey. It would be a typical drink for him; expensive, strong and classy.

She took a deep breath, gathered all her courage and took a seat next to him.  
"One beer please." She ordered, hiding her face a bit from the Chinese barman. Her eyes were still puffy from crying. Arthur turned his head towards her and eyed her. Ada felt uncomfortable as she could feel his eyes roam across her face. She did not have the courage to look at him yet and instead took a big gulp from her beer. Then she took another deep breath before saying something. While she did that, she could smell the strong scent of alcohol coming from Arthur. How much had he been drinking?

"What happened to your face?" Arthur beat her to starting a conversation.  
Ada touched her left cheek. It was still sore and painful. Who could believe there was so much strength in that small little frame of Ariadne. "It's nothing." She replied.

"Did Cobb do something to you?" Arthur asked worriedly.  
"No!" Ada quickly responded. She blushed at her reply, because the barman was staring at her. "No, he didn't. Ariadne did this."

"Ariadne?" Arthur asked in surprise.

This was not the way she planned the conversation. Ada was not able to figure out what she was going to say to him, but this was definitely not the way she wanted it to go.

"That's not important." Ada cut off the topic. "Arthur, I came here to talk to you." She looked at him.

Suddenly Arthur's expression hardened. "No, there's no need for that. I believe you were very clear last time." He made an attempt to stand up.  
"Arthur, please." Ada exclaimed and found her hand on his, trying to make him to stay. Arthur also noticed this. She quickly retrieved her hand. Arthur decided to remain seated.

"I-" She started, but nothing more came out of her mouth. She kind of hoped that things would roll out automatically, but unfortunately it did not. She mentally slapped herself. In her head, Ariadne told her over and over again to grow up.  
"I'm sorry about the way I treated you earlier." The words raced out of her mouth. "I'm sorry for being so childish about it. I did not even thank you properly for saving my life." She looked into his eyes, forcing herself with all her courage. "Thank you, Arthur."

Arthur looked back into her eyes. She forced herself not to look away. It was difficult to read him, because he put on his poker face. Her heart's rhythm increased. It was a hasty apology. Was he still mad at her? Of course he would be. Or maybe he would forgive her, because he had not yelled at her yet.

Arthur's hand went up towards her face. For the split of a moment, she thought he was going to slap her. He did no such thing. Instead he slowly reached out to her. His hand cupped the side of her face as his thumb gently rubbed her beaten cheek. Ada unconsciously leaned into his touch and held her breath. Her heart was still beating loudly. Blood now crept its way up into her cheeks. Arthur's hand travelled lower so that his thumb could caress her lips. Then he closed the gap between them in one swift movement and kissed her.


	11. The job part two

**A/N Argg school is so busy nowadays. Sorry guys. I will try my best to keep on updating frequently, but I cannot promise I will as quick as before. Please bear with me m(_ _)m**

**Previously:  
**_"I'm sorry about the way I treated you earlier." The words raced out of her mouth. "I'm sorry for being so childish about it. I did not even thank you properly for saving my life." She looked into his eyes, forcing herself with all her courage. "Thank you, Arthur."_

_ Arthur looked back into her eyes. She forced herself not to look away. It was difficult to read him, because he put on his poker face. Her heart's rhythm increased. It was a hasty apology. Was he still mad at her? Of course he would be. Or maybe he would forgive her, because he had not yelled at her yet._  
_ Arthur's hand went up towards her face. For the split of a moment, she thought he was going to slap her. He did no such thing. Instead he slowly reached out to her. His hand cupped the side of her face as his thumb gently rubbed her beaten cheek._

_

* * *

_

Ada's eyes went wide in surprise. Before her brains could register what was happening, the contact was broken. Arthur slipped away. Luckily she had fast reflexes and caught him in time before he fell out of his chair.  
"Arthur!" She said, while struggling to keep him upright. Damn, he was heavy.

"He drink too much, he completely drunk, Miss." The barman said in broken English and quickly approached them. "I help you bring him to room?"

"No, that's alright." Ada said. She managed to keep Arthur on his chair with one arm, while her other hand reached in her pocket to get some cash. After paying for the drinks, she dragged Arthur upstairs with much effort.

"Eames? Cobb? A little bit of help please." Ada yelled out as she reached the right floor.  
Eames' head popped out of the door to take a peek. When he caught sight of her and Arthur, he quickly rushed to them. "What happened, darling?" He asked as he hooked Arthur's arm over his shoulder to carry the point man.

"He had a bit too much to drink." Ada replied.  
Together they carried Arthur inside and laid him to rest on the bed. Cobb and Ariadne both came to check things out. Ariadne appeared calmed down, although her eyes were red and swollen from crying.

"The poor darling passed out from drinking too much." Eames informed his team members.

Ariadne looked at Ada. The inventor knew what she was wondering and replied: "Everything is fine between us. I think." She forgave her for slapping her earlier. How could someone be mad at Ariadne, after understanding what she had been through?

"What do you mean you think?" Eames asked.

"I apologized to him and then-" Ada explained, but then blushed at the thought of what happened next. She censored it for her friends and said: "And then he passed out."

Eames suddenly leaned into her to observe her face, making Ada blush even more. "Why are you blushing, love? Something happened you don't want to tell us?" He teased her.  
Ada tried to brush him off, while keeping her cool even though it was evident that she was embarrassed. Ariadne only smiled. Cobb was relieved as well. He was glad that everything was alright between his friends. Now that his team was back together, they could focus once more on the job.

As they let Arthur sleep, Cobb steered everyone back on track. They were still busy working after all. "I'm glad everything is okay now, but there is something we need to discuss."

"You mean the job?" Eames asked. Cobb nodded. He filled Ariadne in, since she was not there when he reported to HBA.

"We successfully extracted the information from Wailun, but it turned out that parts are missing. They want us to get the remaining parts."  
Ariadne took her time to think about it. For her, it seemed like years ago that she worked on the job. "I thought we only had to extract Wailun's thoughts?" She asked.

"You are absolutely right. Unfortunately the people at HBA are not happy with what we extracted. They want more. We either finish the job or we get nothing."

"What? That's ridiculous." Ariadne exclaimed and frowned. She ended up in the Black hole and merely escaped. It could have ended completely different. She did not appreciate the fact that HBA thought nothing of her life.

"That's the way things go if you work with powerful people, darling." Eames said to her.

Cobb continued before Ariadne had time to throw an unnecessary fit. "I told them I would think about it."

"What is the chance of successfully extracting the remaining information?" Ada asked.

"First we need to find out who the target is." Cobb answered.

"That could be anyone." Eames said and sighed.

"Then the chance of finishing the job is very small." Ada stated, destroying everyone's hope.

"No it's not." Ariadne disagreed. "I might know who the new target is."

That caught the attention of the entire team. The other three had to sit in suspension a bit longer, for Ariadne had trouble with remembering details that could help the team. The woman rubbed her forehead as if that would stimulate her brain.

"Wailun's wife." She said.  
"Is she the new target?" Cobb asked.

"It could be. I remembered when we were in T-tech's headquarters, I saw an Asian woman in one of the lower floors. She had a beautiful dress on. I thought it was weird to see someone dressed like that when going to work. That's why I remembered her. Another thing that I noticed was that projections surrounded her, like bodyguards. It was as if Wailun was protecting her from something." Ariadne recalled.

"What makes you so sure she is his wife?" Eames asked.

"I don't know for sure. That's what I am guessing. The point is that I think she knows more about this project of Wailun."

"Do you remember what she looks like?" Cobb asked.  
Ariadne shrugged. "I think I will be able to identify her on a picture or something, but don't ask me to describe her."

"That's good enough." Cobb said. "At least we have a lead. The fact that Wailun's subconscious conjured her up, means that she is somehow related to the project."  
Eames and Ada smiled as they realized that it became a lot easier to complete their goal.

"Anything else that could help us, Ariadne?" Ada asked.

The woman thought about it, but then shook her head. "I'm sorry, that's all I can remember."

Cobb then directing his attention to the entire team. "Now that we know this, we must decide whether we want to finish the job or not. I myself have decided to continue. I don't want to force you into anything. That's why I'm offering you the opportunity to choose for yourself. If you want to get out now, I won't blame you."

"Hold up. We're a team." Eames said. "We have been through hell together. I think we can manage a small extraction."

"I couldn't agree more." Ariadne said. She owed her team a big favour for rescuing her while they could have let her rot in the Black hole. The least she could do was help them finish the job.  
Ada nodded in agreement with the others. She was also not someone who would let her team down.

"What about Arthur?" Cobb asked and nodded his head towards the direction of an unconscious Arthur.

"I guess the poor darling doesn't have a choice." Eames grinned. "In this case silence is consent."

"Great. Then you can explain everything to him when he wakes up, Mr. Eames." Cobb grinned back. It felt great to finally be able to have fun together.

Suddenly Ada yawned and quickly covered her mouth. "Sorry." She muttered, making the others laugh.

"I'm tired as well." Eames said and suppressed his own yawn. They had only been gone for a couple of hours, but it felt like days for Eames. He wondered how tired his team members must be from going even deeper into dreams.

"I suggest we all take a break. We need to be fit and ready for the next extraction." Cobb said.

"Agreed." The others said.  
"Then I will inform our employer about our decision." Cobb made a quick call.

When Arthur woke up, he was surprised about his location. How did he end up in bed in a hotel room? And why did his head hurt so much? Arthur winced silently in pain. He quickly took out his dice and rolled it onto the bed, hoping it would not be a 3. The dice gave him a 5. He sighed in relief, but then jumped at the sound of a female voice.

"Ah you're finally up." Ada looked up from behind her laptop.

Arthur put away his dice, hoping Ada did not see the result of his throw. "How did I get here?"

"You don't remember?" Her eyebrows were raised slightly.  
Arthur tried his best to recall what happened. He remembered everything that happened in Limbo. After that he only had vague memories of lots of shouting and a lot of alcohol. That explained the hangover. When he did not reply, Ada stared at him.

"You really don't remember do you?" She asked. There was a trace of disappointment. On one hand she was glad that he did not remember, because it spared them a very awkward moment, but on the other hand she could not help but wonder about his reasons behind the kiss.

"What happened?" Arthur asked.

"You were drinking a lot down at the bar." Ada explained. "I went to talk to you, but half way you passed out. Then I dragged you up to the room." If he did not remember it, there was no need to remind him of it right now.

They heard the door open. Then they could see Eames' head slide in to take a peek.  
"The chap is finally awake." He said behind him.

The three remaining team members entered the room with white plastic bags. Instantly the room was filled with the smell of greasy fast food. Arthur suddenly felt nauseous and covered his mouth in case he would puke.

"Don't worry, darling. We got some tea and toast for you." Eames grinned and threw a bag onto Arthur's lap. As Ariadne opened the window for him, Arthur noticed it was dark outside.  
"How long have I been sleeping?" The point man asked.

"Quite a few hours. Close to ten, I would say." Cobb replied and dug into his dinner. "We all took a nap. When we woke up, we decided to let you sleep. It looked like you needed it."

Eames pulled up a chair and sat close to Arthur. While eating his dinner, he informed Arthur about their conversation earlier. "Let's get back to business shall we? We have decided to continue with the job. We think we have a new target."

After explaining all the details, Arthur agreed entirely with finishing the job.

"Great." Cobb said after Arthur made his decision. "Finish your dinner and go pack your things. I've got 5 airplane tickets arranged for tonight."

They all returned to the warehouse to prepare for the job. Arthur tried to find out more about this mysterious woman with the help of Ariadne and Eames. While they were working, Ada returned to HBA to report some details. Cobb went back to his family. He needed to see his children again before continuing the job.

After a few days Arthur gathered the entire team together.

"This is Xiu Ying Cheng." Arthur showed them all a picture of an elegant woman in her fourties. "She is the second wife of Wailun Cheng. The two of them live in Shanghai. Xiu Ying rarely leaves town. As far as I could find, she is not connected to her husband's company in any way."

He grabbed another set of pictures and passed them around. "These are pictures of her work. Xiu Ying is an artist, specialized in modern Chinese art. She is highly respected in Shanghai for her work and most of her paintings can be viewed in the local art museum."

"I don't understand." Eames butted in.

"What don't you understand?" Arthur asked and held back the urge to insult his intelligence.

"Are you sure she is the target? I highly doubt that this woman would know anything about the project."

"But there was a reason why she appeared in the dream." Ariadne brought in.

"True, but if you think logically, then it would make more sense to go after Wailun's faithful right hand Jia." Eames said.

"Actually, no." Arthur countered. "Wailun and Xiu Ying are very close together. Even though Wailun has purposely kept her out of his business, he still loves her dearly. Xiu Ying is unable to conceive children, yet Wailun has not left her. The two of them are often spotted taking evening strolls in the nearby park or going out together. I believe Wailun would trust his wife more than his head of development."

"I think our best chance is to pick his wife." Cobb said, deciding for the team. "What else have you found?"

"Xiu Ying works at home, so she spends most of her time in the house. It is best if we visit her in her own home. During the day her husband is busy working, which leaves us with enough alone time with her."

"We will be disguised as mechanics who come to check the house." Cobb contributed to the plan. "Once we are in the dream, Eames will take up the identity of Wailun and remind her about the project. Then I will extract the missing parts."

"Do we need to prepare for any dangerous projections?" Ariadne asked.

Arthur shook his head. "Have you noticed that we haven't heard anything yet from Wailun? If Wailun felt threatened, he would have sent some men to kidnap or kill us. I believe he thinks that we're all stuck in Limbo or the Black hole. I also think he did not bother to protect the mind of his wife."

"Then this one should be easy." Ariadne said. "I think one level will suffice."

"Yes, that would be the best." Cobb agreed.  
The last thing left was to wait for Ariadne to build her maze. When she was finished, the whole team flew over to Shanghai.


	12. The unpredictable art of extraction

**Previously:  
**

_"I think our best chance is to pick his wife." Cobb said, deciding for the team. "What else have you found?"_

_"Xiu Ying works at home, so she spends most of her time in the house. It is best if we visit her in her own home. During the day her husband is busy working, which leaves us with enough alone time with her." Arthur said._

_ "We will be disguised as mechanics who come to check the house." Cobb contributed to the plan. "Once we are in the dream, Eames will take up the identity of Wailun and remind her about the project. Then I will extract the missing parts."_

_The last thing left was to wait for Ariadne to build her maze. When she was finished, the whole team flew over to Shanghai._

_

* * *

_

First, they went in search for a hotel nearby Wailun's home. There they took their time to do the necessary last minute preparations. Eames took out two overalls. Nobody knew where he got them from. He handed one over to Cobb.

"Why are you giving it to me?" Cobb asked.

"Because there is no way Arthur can fool Mrs. Cheng that he is a mechanic." Eames chuckled.  
Arthur grimaced, but he had to admit that Eames made a very good point.

"But I am the extractor." Cobb replied. "She should not see my face until we're in the dream. What about Ariadne and Ada?" Cobb eyed his female colleagues.

"Why am I always the bait?" Ada asked in annoyance.

"Well, there's your answer, Cobb." Eames smiled at the extractor. "Plus, they would probably not fit the clothes and in China it is very uncommon to see women work in a male dominant industry."

Cobb sighed, knowing he had no choice. This was the downside of working with intelligent people. Sometimes you will lose an argument. He and Eames changed into their clothes. Arthur took the dream machine with him before they headed towards the house.

As they stood outside, Eames suddenly stopped Cobb.  
"What?" Cobb asked.

Eames bent over to pick up dirt with his hands. Then he threw the dirt at Cobb and grinned like a madman.  
"Eames!" Cobb yelled. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Lighten up, darling. Do you really think Xiu Ying will believe you if you knock on her door with a spotless uniform on?"

"He's right, Cobb." Arthur said. He threw a heap of dirt in the direction of Eames. Normally Arthur would not want to get his hands dirty, but this was an opportunity he did not want to miss.

"Hey! I can take of myself, thanks." Eames glared and picked up a pile of dirt, ready to throw at the point man.  
Arthur quickly rose his arms up in defence. The thought of getting his expensive suit dirty was very unpleasant. "Hold on. Throw that and I swear the first thing I do in the dream is shoot you in the foot."

Eames thought about the pain. He then changed his mind. A few seconds of torturing Arthur was not worth the pain. The two men in disguise continued to rub dirt into their overalls. Soon they looked like real mechanics.

"Why didn't you make the overalls dirty before you put them on?" Ada asked the forger.

Eames winked at her and lowered his voice so that only she could hear. "Now where's the fun in that?" He grabbed a toolbox and walked off.  
Ada had a suspicion he must have stolen that as well from somewhere.

Ada, Ariadne and Arthur hid themselves at the end of the street while Cobb and Eames made their way to the house. Cobb rang the door bell. After a few moments, a woman in expensive clothing opened the door.

"Good afternoon." Eames greeted her. "We're from PetroChina. Could we check your meters?"

The woman looked a bit confused. She looked at the both of them. Cobb tried to hide his face the best he could.

"We are here for the annual check." Eames explained, pulling her attention back to him.  
The woman looked as if she did not understand him. Eames figured her English was probably not that good. Just his luck, he thought.  
"Check how much electricity you use." Eames used his hands to support his words.

She finally understood. After a moment she answered in broken English that it was fine and opened the door to let them in. Inside the house she led them towards the back and showed Eames and Cobb where the meters were.  
Eames put down his toolbox and pretended to check the meters while starting a conversation at the same time. "Hm, that is strange."

"Not okay?" Xiu Ying asked worriedly. She approached Eames to take a look herself.

"Yes. This is not good. The numbers are too high." Eames pointed at the rotating digits.

While Xiu Ying was distracted, Cobb took out the drug they used on her husband earlier. He snuck up behind her and pressed the dampened cloth against her nose and mouth while pressing her close to him, in case she would resist. She screamed out of shock, but Cobb muffled her scream, so that the neighbours would not be alarmed. Then she went limp in his arms.

"Get the others." Cobb ordered the forger. He dragged the woman by her arms towards the bedroom and tucked her in the bed.

Outside on the streets, the other three waited. Ada was pacing around, deep in thought. Stress was evident on her face and it was clear to Arthur that something bothered her. However, the point man was reluctant to approach her. He thought back of what happened in Beijing before they went back to the warehouse.  
When she asked him whether he remembered what happened in the bar, he lied to her. The amount of alcohol he drank was not enough to suppress that memory. He had been drinking in order to forget things, drinking away his problems. Actually, it made things even worse. The alcohol had freed him and yet made him lose control at the same time. All his walls came down thanks to the drinks. He kissed Ada for a reason, but Arthur was too scared to find out which reason. Yes, the always cool, down to earth, professional point man was scared. He was scared of the truth, of the future. It was only a week ago when he put their friendship to the test by betraying her. Arthur could not bear risking their friendship again just to answer to his own selfish feelings.

On top of that, he also felt guilty for confusing the girl. Luckily she did not confront him with what happened, but Arthur knew he gave her false hope. Yet, seeing the worried look on her face automatically made him want to comfort her.

"What's wrong?" He finally asked her.

"Nothing." She answered. She realized she was pacing up and down and stopped her movements.

"I know you long enough to see through your lies." Arthur told her.

Ada sighed. "I'm just worried. I keep thinking that you guys will walk into a trap when you go down. Or what if you are all sleeping with me staying behind and then Wailun's men come barging in and shoot the bejesus out of all of us?"

Note to self: don't let that girl watch any more action movies, Arthur thought.

"It will be alright." Ariadne answered first. "We can take care of ourselves and we won't be gone for long. Anyway, I highly doubt that they will come and shoot us. Wailun thinks we're all dead and if he doesn't, well then I don't think they will risk killing his wife in the process."

Arthur could not have given the inventor a better answer. Ariadne's words calmed her just in time. At that moment, Eames opened the door and gestured them to get inside.  
Eames returned to Cobb with the others.

"Do female marks get a special treatment?" Ada asked in confusion at the sight of Xiu Ying nicely tucked in her bed.

Meanwhile Cobb was busy connecting her onto the dream machine. "No, it is just a safety precaution. In case something happens, we will run before she wakes up. When she is conscious again, hopefully she will think she fell asleep alone."

After everyone placed the IV and the patch, Ada held her hand over the button. "Be safe." She said. Her eyes looked at each of them, lingering a bit longer on Athur, before sending them down.

The team found themselves in the exact same location. Arthur marvelled at the precision of the dream. Ariadne only had a blueprint of the house to work with when building her maze. She was inside the house for only a minute and yet the living room looked almost exactly as the one left in reality. Eames took on the appearance of Wailun. He made his way to the bedroom and signalled Cobb to wait outside the room. This was an easy job. It should not take too long, Eames thought. He approached Xiu Ying's sleeping form and almost pitied her for she was about to get robbed without ever knowing it.

"Honey?" Eames asked and walked up to her side.

"Wailun?" Xiu Ying looked around her and discovered that she was in bed. "Why are you home?"

Eames smiled. He was happy that the brain worked a lot faster in dreams. Xiu Ying was able to find the correct English words a lot faster, making it easier for Eames to hold a conversation with her.

"Because it is already 7 o'clock in the evening." Wailun answered. She looked out of the window and saw that it was beginning to get dark outside. Being in dreams also made her understand him a lot faster.

"I went to sleep, I think." She said and got out of bed. "I'm sorry. There is no dinner. I will make it now."  
"No, don't worry about it." Eames said. He brought her closer by circling his arm around her waist. Meanwhile he quickly looked out of the window at the projections of her mind. All the projections seemed to be caught up in their own thoughts and paid no attention to the team. He then gave her a kiss on the cheek and got a smile out of her. "We will go out for dinner later, but there is something I want to talk about first."

He led her to the living room. His team members were all sitting on the couches.

"They are colleagues from work." Eames said to Xiu Ying.  
"That is Trevor, Paul and Lily. They are from America." He pointed each of them out. "And this is my wife Xiu Ying."

"Nice to meet you." She bowed lightly. "Do you want tea?"

"No, that is fine. Please sit down." Eames gently nudged her in one of the fauteuils.

Cobb worked his magic. "Mrs. Cheng, we came here to talk about something very important. We are currently working on a really big project right now. However, recently our network crashed and we lost a lot of important data. Luckily we were able to retrieve most of it, but there are still some things missing. The guy that worked on that part, quit his job a month ago. Mr. Cheng told us that you have the missing information."

Cobb looked at her intently. She did not respond towards his advances. Her eyes did not move, but instead rested on his the entire time. This was unusual. Normally the mark would show the location of the mentioned piece of information.

"No, not have it." She replied. "I know no things about business." She looked at her husband.

The team did not expect this. Perhaps she really did not know anything about the project. Maybe they got the wrong mark after all.  
Cobb racked his brain. There was a reason why Wailun's subconscious created her projection, there had to be. Maybe she does know something, but Wailun told her not to share it with others. But that would not make sense, because Eames practically asked her to spill the beans by having this talk with her. Or perhaps…

Cobb gave Eames a meaningful look. Eames understood. He looked at Xiu Ying and said: "I am very sure that I gave you the information. I was very busy and forgot what it was, but I do know that you have it."

"I am sorry, Wailun. I really don't know." Xiu Ying apologized. "We never talk business." She told the three on the couches.

Cobb's brain was still running full speed. Perhaps she did have the information, but she just does not know that she does. It was almost like putting away a big diamond in a drawer, thinking it is a mere piece of cubic zirconia, not knowing the real value of the diamond.

"Was there something that Mr. Cheng gave you?" Cobb asked her. "Something that was really important?"

The woman took a moment to think. "No, nothing important." She replied.

Cobb's hope began to run out. Still, he was stubborn and refused to admit that they had the wrong target. There were times when he wished he could directly delve into someone's mind and start digging, instead of trying to pull it out of someone first and then extract it.

Ariadne noticed something in the corner of her eye. She could see some projections trying to peek inside through the windows. Xiu Ying was suspecting something. She nudged Cobb and looked at the projections. Cobb imitated her eye movements and knew he had to hurry. He looked over at Eames, hoping the forger could help him.

Eames interpreted the extractor's look correctly and took the hand of Xiu Ying. "Sweetheart, think. It is very important for us to have that information."

She looked into Eames' eyes. Eames held eye contact and refused to budge, knowing that would unmask him. Xiu Ying then asked: "Do you mean the numbers I must remember?"  
It was worth a shot. "Yes." Eames said. "Where is it?"

The projections stopped staring at them. Ariadne felt more relieved. She never liked to deal with projections.  
Xiu Ying wrung her hands as her eyes slanted towards the ground. She suddenly got nervous.

"What's wrong?" Eames asked and faked his concern.

"No, nothing." She replied. "I am sorry." She apologized again. Now she started groping the ends of her shirt. "I never tell you this. I don't remember the numbers. It is too hard to remember, but I make a painting with numbers."  
It took them a while to fully understand what she meant.

"You made a painting of the numbers, so you don't have to remember it?" Eames asked.

"Yes." She replied. "But I never tell you, because I am scared you get mad." Her shirt was all wrinkly due to the harsh treatment it received from her hands.

"I am not mad." Eames calmed her down and covered her hands with his. "Where is the painting with the numbers?"  
"It is in museum." She said shyly as if she did something wrong again. "If it is in museum, then you don't know I don't remember."

"You were scared I would find out you could not remember it?" Eames asked.

"Yes." She admitted.

"I'm not mad." Eames told her and smiled. The woman smiled back to him and Eames' heart melted. It was evident that this woman really loved her husband dearly.

Cobb cleared his throat to get their attention. "Mrs. Cheng, thank you for your information. We know enough. We won't need this piece of information again in the future, so it is best not to mention this to anyone else."

"Yes, in fact, you can forget about the numbers and about the painting." Eames agreed.  
They had to make sure that Xiu Ying would not inform the real Wailun in reality. Otherwise they would have a big problem.

"Okay." Xiu Ying nodded.

"Why don't you go change your clothes?" Eames started to wrap things up. "Put something nice on and we'll go out for dinner soon. I will let these three out."

She obeyed and disappeared in the bedroom. Instantly everyone felt relieved due to finding the right mark. They were glad that their efforts were not in vain.

"That was actually quite good acting, Eames." Arthur complimented when Xiu Ying was out of hearing range.  
"Your negativity always knows how to warm my heart." Eames commented with thick sarcasm.  
Ariadne giggled at their bickering. It had been a while for her hearing their word battles and she missed them.

"Ariadne, guns please." Cobb on the other hand ignored the two. She created a few pistols in the dream, so they could get out.


	13. Programming from Hell

**Previously:**

_"I never tell you this. I don't remember the numbers. It is too hard to remember, but I make a painting with numbers."_  
_ It took them a while to fully understand what she meant.  
_  
_ "You made a painting of the numbers, so you don't have to remember it?" Eames asked.  
__"Yes." She replied. "But I never tell you, because I am scared you get mad." Her shirt was all wrinkly due to the harsh treatment it received from her hands._

_"I am not mad." Eames calmed her down and covered her hands with his. "Where is the painting with the numbers?"_  
_ "It is in museum." She said shyly as if she did something wrong again. "If it is in museum, then you don't know I don't remember."_

_"You were scared I would find out you could not remember it?" Eames asked.  
__"Yes." She admitted._

_

* * *

_

When they opened their eyes, they quickly pulled off the strings and packed up the dream machine.

"How did it go?" Ada asked them.

"She doesn't know about the project." Cobb answered. "But she said something about numbers her husband made her remember."

"Numbers?" Ada asked in confusion.

"We don't know exactly what she meant as well, but she said it was too difficult for her to remember. It could be some kind of code that is needed for the other part I already extracted." Cobb said and began to make his way out of the house, followed by the others.

"So did you get the code?" The inventor asked, running to keep up with Cobb's speed.

"She made a painting of it." Eames continued. "She could not remember it, so she made a painting of it. The painting is in the museum."

"Off we go then." Cobb said to his team. Everyone got out of the house and Cobb closed the door as gently as he could before Xiu Ying noticed they paid her a visit.

Eames and Cobb changed their clothes at the hotel. Afterwards, they took a cab to the museum. It was a weekday, so there were not a lot of visitors. The team got inside and walked through the hallways filled with different pieces of art. It was a big museum, so it took them quite some time to find the works of Xiu Ying Cheng.

As they were looking around, Ada lingered a bit longer, pretending to stare at an abstract painting in front of her. Arthur was at the end of the group and Ada took this opportunity to talk to him. Both of them pretended nothing happened since they started on the new extraction. Ada had been thinking a lot about the whole situation between them and it bugged her that things were not thoroughly discussed. She was a person who would overthink everything, especially things involving strong emotions. If things would not get straightened out between them, she would go mad with her own thoughts.

"I'm really curious about what this code could be." Ada started a conversation with him as soon as she was close enough.

He stopped scanning the artworks and looked at her. "I am sure it would only be technical gibberish to us. You should have been there. Perhaps you would be able to make more out of Xiu Ying's answers."

"No thanks."She remembered the last dream she entered. "I've had my share of experiences already and it is enough for the rest of my life."

"The dream you entered was not a normal dream."Arthur said, trying to subdue her fears. "Normally we don't deal with projections that form a threat to us. In some very rare cases the mind of the mark is protected, but even then projections are not as dangerous as the ones you saw in Ariadne's dream."

"It wasn't only the projections, but also going down to Limbo." Ada replied, carefully pushing the conversation towards the right direction.

Memories of what happened in Limbo formed in Arthur's mind. There was a brief silence between them. Fortunate for him, Ada continued talking.  
"You said you don't remember what happened in the bar." She looked at him. "I was mad at you for what you did in Limbo, but Ariadne slapped some sense into me, quite literally actually." She recalled.

Arthur remembered touching her cheek and now he found out why.

"I found you in the bar and talked to you." She paused again because she had difficulties formulating her next sentences. "I'm sorry for letting myself go like that and yelling at you. I know you meant well and I think I would have done the same thing if it was the other way around."

"It's alright." Arthur quickly said. She did not need to apologize. It was funny what she said, because Arthur would probably also have scolded at her if he got shot.

Ada sighed and it was as if a burden was lifted off her chest. That was one issue, now the other.

"And another thing…" She started.  
Arthur stiffened. He knew very well what she was going to say, but he did not expect her to face him with this so soon.

"Over here, guys." Ariadne suddenly said, attracting their attention.

Arthur thanked her mentally for saving him. He felt bad from running away, being a coward, but he was not ready to deal with it now. The rest of the team reached Ariadne to see if she found the painting.

"These are all from Xiu Ying." The architect said as she read the English directions on the wall.

"Come take a look at this one." Arthur walked ahead and saw a big painting that did not quite stand out as much as the others. The painting was a big canvas with a yellow background colour. Other than the yellow, it was an explosion of many small letters and numbers. Compared to the other works it looked quite chaotic and boring.

"Wow, what does it mean?" Ariadne wondered and looked at the amount of characters on the painting.

"I have no idea, darling. Unfortunately the name also does not make any sense. It is in Chinese." Eames took a look at the name tag of the canvas.

"Eames, take pictures of it." Cobb ordered, knowing that the forger's phone gave the best quality pictures.

"Got it." He said and took out his phone.  
Meanwhile Ada also took a look at the painting and was almost mesmerized by it. There was something familiar about it. Where had she seen it before? She unconsciously scratched her head lightly while thinking.

"What?" Arthur looked at her, noticing her scratching herself. He figured it was probably a habit of hers, signalling she was deep in thought.

"I have seen it before." Ada answered the question, but paid no attention to whoever asked her.

"Where have you seen it before?" Cobb asked, now alert that the inventor might be able to determine whether this was the missing piece or not.

Suddenly it came to her. Ada cursed out loud, scaring a few moms who coincidentally stood close to her. They quickly covered their kid's ears and mumbled something rude in Chinese.

"Ada, not so loud. You will attract unwanted attention." Cobb shushed her.

"Sorry." Ada apologized and bowed apologetically towards the moms. Afterwards she returned her attention to the problem. "The code is written in Malbolge."

"The mal-what?" Eames asked.  
"Malbolge is-"

Cobb quickly muffled her sentence by covering the inventor's mouth. "Not here." He whispered and glanced around him as if he could catch someone eavesdropping.  
Ada nodded and he released her.

"You can explain it when we get back to the hotel." Cobb said.

Soon they were back at the hotel. Eames handed over the phone with the pictures to Ada.

After taking another look at them, Ada was very sure of it now. "It is a code written in the computer language Malbolge." She explained. "Unfortunately Malbolge is also the most difficult programming language in existence. Most programs work on Java, PHP or C, which are a lot easier."

"Is this Mal…" Arthur started. He was struggling with the technical term. "Is this language very difficult to understand?"

"Are you kidding?" Ada eyed him. "Malbolge is extremely complex. It was specially designed to be difficult and it's named after the eighth circle of hell of Dante's poem Inferno. So far nobody has been able to program successfully with Malbolge. There was this guy once that tried to program something really simple, but even that was not 100 percent correct." Ada looked at the pictures in her hand. She was amazed that Wailun's company was able to program in this language. HBA had a big problem. T-tech was way out of their league if they were able to accomplish this sort of things.

"No wonder Wailun's wife did not understand." Ariadne said. Looking at the size of the code, she could understand why Xiu Ying disobeyed her husband and made a painting of it so she did not have to remember it.

"Is there any way for you to figure it out?" Cobb asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Ada shook her head. "This is way too complex. I don't have any experience with Malbolge."

"We have the code, why don't we just send it to HBA and be done with it?" Arthur stated.

"HBA will not be able to understand it either." Ada disagreed. "I have seen the people working there. To be honest I am kind of surprised that they were able to survive in the market for so long."

"That still leaves my question valid." Arthur said. "We got the missing part. Let them deal with the code. Our part of the work is done."

"Do you honestly believe that?" Eames asked him, while squinting. "Do you think that HBA will thank us with a huge smile and just hand us a big pile of money?"  
Arthur did not answer the question, for they all knew the answer. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

"We have no choice but to find Wailun. He was the one who gave the code to Xiu Ying, so he should be the one who understands how this code works." Ariadne said.

"Oh fuck me." Eames groaned loudly at the idea of going back to the person who lured them into a trap.  
The others were demotivated as well.

"When will it end?" Eames asked. "It feels like we have been going at it forever to complete this job."

Cobb found it hard to motivate his team this time. He himself wondered the same question. He knew this would be the last step, but what were the chances of success? It meant they had to trick Wailun again and enter his mind with those blasted projections. Cobb shuddered at the last thought. He learned long ago that sometimes things do not go the way you planned them to go. However, his instincts told him to go forwards and to finish the job. Therefore he tried once more to unite his team.

"Come on guys, we can do this."

The others were not convinced.

"Wailun's guard will be down. Arthur, you said it yourself. He probably thinks we are dead anyway. We just need to be more careful this time. Then we will be able to extract the information without any trouble."

"Cobb, as much as I hate to say this, I'm with Eames on this one." Arthur stopped his friend.

"No, listen to me. I have risked my life and I went through hell and back. I do not want all that to be in vain." He took a much more serious tone.  
Arthur paused and the two of them tested each other with their eyes.

"Is it worth risking your life again?" Arthur asked him this simple question, yet it was enough to shatter the fragile wall of hope Cobb built. Was it really worth risking his life again for this job? Was it worth risking not being able to see his family anymore if it would turn out ugly?

"What choice do we have?" Cobb eventually asked. "We are thieves. We are specialized in stealing information through dreams." He looked at every member on his team. "You all know how addicting it is to work with dreams. Can you really step away from this?" He paused, allowing his message to sink in. "If you can, for what then? I am sure within a month you will be busy working on another job, risking your life once again. Face it. This is what we do and we cannot escape from the thrill, the excitement, the reward."

The others were silent. Everyone knew Cobb was right. Once you get a taste of the dream realm, it is very hard to resist.

Eames ran his hand through his hair, aware of their only choice and sighed. "Do you have a new plan?"  
"We need to figure out how to get Wailun alone long enough to extract the information." Cobb said, glad that they were all on board.

"I suppose he is not making any trips to Beijing soon." Arthur said.

"I doubt it. He should be here in Shanghai now." Ada said who knew Wailun's schedule thanks to her bosses working at the HBA.

"We are going to spy on him tonight." Cobb said. "Ada, does Wailun drive his own car to work or does he get a ride?"

"Important business people always have their own chauffeurs." The girl replied.

"Good. Then we will see what kind of car they drive him in tonight." Cobb said.

"Great idea, Cobb." Arthur caught on. "Then we can rent the same car and pick him up tomorrow morning."

"Exactly. It is easy to get him aboard and easy to get rid of him if we need to flee." Cobb said. "Tomorrow when we enter the dream, I want everyone to come. You too, Ada." The extractor told the girl, who frowned in response. He knew she did not particularly like going into the field due to traumatizing experiences, but he needed her in case something would happen.

"Eames, can you change yourself into Xiu Ying?" Cobb asked.

"No problem." Eames smiled at the thought of the lovely lady.  
Cobb nodded. "Then you will go after the code disguised as her."

"Wait, I can't make a maze that fast." Ariadne interrupted the conversation.

"Use the same maze of today for the first level." Cobb answered. "We will use two levels." He wanted to decrease the risks as much as he could. More levels meant more escape options. "For the second level, use the one of T-tech's main office. Although I would alter it a little bit. Wailun might still remember parts of your maze."

Ariadne nodded. That would be doable.

"I will go stand on the look-out." Arthur offered. Cobb nodded. The two of them left the hotel room. The others stayed behind to plan out all the details of their mission.


	14. Not again

**Previously:  
**

_"We are going to spy on him tonight." Cobb said. "Ada, does Wailun drive his own car to work or does he get a ride?"  
__"Important business people always have their own chauffeurs." The girl replied._

_"Good. Then we will see what kind of car they drive him in tonight." Cobb said._

_"Great idea, Cobb." Arthur caught on. "Then we can rent the same car and pick him up tomorrow morning."_

_ "Exactly. It is easy to get him aboard and easy to get rid of him if we need to flee." Cobb said._

_"I will go stand on the look-out." Arthur offered. Cobb nodded. The two of them left the hotel room. The others stayed behind to plan out all the details of their mission._

**

* * *

**

When the sun began to set, Cobb and Arthur came back. They rented a silver Chrysler voyager for the next day. The team went through the plan together again to minimize the risks as much as possible.

The next day they put their plan into action. Ada had prepared a small program the evening before. She found the phone number of the real driver. She also used a pronunciation program to record a message in Chinese to tell the driver Mr. Cheng had fallen ill and that he would not go to work today. With the real driver out of the way, the team waited for the rented car to come. It arrived early in the morning in front of their hotel.

Cobb explained the situation to the driver. He promised the driver a big sum of money if he would not ask any questions and just drive for a few hours. This made the driver suspicious and it took him a while to make a decision. The idea of receiving a lot of money from just one client was very tempting. Cobb showed him a small stack of 100 Yuan bills. This was enough to convince him to help them.

The team went ahead to the street where they would meet later. The driver took the car to the house just as Wailun exited his house. He gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek and entered the vehicle. Then the driver drove towards the street Cobb ordered him to bring Wailun to. When the driver arrived, he stopped the car, confusing Wailun.

The head of T-tech bent forward to take a look outside and asked in Chinese why they stopped. Then the door to his right swung open. Arthur jumped inside and drugged the man. Unfortunately it was not that easy and Arthur got a taste of Wailun's powerful right hook. The mark put up quite a struggle and made a lot of noise, but eventually he laid passed out in his seat.  
"Quickly. People will wonder what is happening." Cobb said to the others. The people on the streets were starting to whisper to each other as they heard the noises coming from the car. The team members quickly got in with Cobb and Eames in the front and the others in the back.

"Go, drive." Arthur ordered the driver in annoyance as he touched his lips. The bastard busted his lip. Arthur wiped away the blood while Ariadne handed over the strings to everyone from the dream machine.

"Are you alright?" Ariadne asked him.

"I'll be fine once I go down." He answered.

Everyone put in the IV and placed the patch. Cobb explained the driver everything one more time. Then Ariadne pressed the button and the whole team entered her dream.

They were back inside the house again. Eames changed himself into Xiu Ying. It was dark outside and the only light burning was in the bedroom. They could read it was 3 o'clock at night on the clock in the living room.

"Wailun is in the bed room. I would put some pyjamas on." Ariadne whispered and looked at Eames' evening dress.

Eames did what he was told, but he got an angry reaction out of her.  
"Something more sophisticated!" She hissed back with red cheeks when she saw the see-through gown Eames forged. Thank god the darkness hid her red cheeks. Eames chuckled in response and changed into a soft pink two piece pyjama with roses on it. "Better?" He asked her.

Ariadne nodded uncomfortably. Her face was still flustered. Eames made his way to the bedroom. He left the door slightly open so that the rest could take a peek at what happened inside.

"Wailun, you're awake." Eames said.  
Wailun was sitting upright in bed. "Yes. Where did you go?" He asked.

"I had a nightmare and I couldn't sleep, so I went downstairs to drink something." Eames replied and went over to sit next to him.

Instantly he wrapped an arm around Eames' waist, making the forger feel uncomfortable. He forgot that Wailun and Xiu Ying are close together. Wailun looked at his wife in the eyes. Eames felt a bit nervous, when Wailun did that. He was afraid that he might get discovered. He had only seen Xiu Ying a few times. There was not enough observation time to perfectly imitate her down to the smallest details.  
"What's wrong?" Eames asked as sweetly as he could, hoping to distract the Chinese man.

"Have I been drinking a lot last night?" Wailun asked.

Eames mentally sighed in relief. Luckily Wailun came with his own explanations for why he could not remember how he got in bed.  
"Yes you were drinking quite a lot at the family party. Does your head hurt? I can make tea for you." Eames said.

"No, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Wailun said. Eames stiffened when Wailun leaned forward to place a small kiss on his cheek. He could already imagine Arthur in the living room using all his willpower to suppress his laughter.

Wailun then sighed and shook his head, trying to clear his mind. "I'm sorry. What was your nightmare about?" He asked.

"Oh yes, the nightmare." Eames said. He quickly made up a story. "I dreamt I was doing groceries. As I was walking in the supermarket, I suddenly fell into this big hole. In the hole were a lot of numbers and they came towards me. It was as if they were trying to squash me to death." He made a gesture by clapping his palms together. "It was so scary. It felt like I kept on falling and falling while being squashed at the same time."

"It's alright, honey. It was just a bad dream." Wailun comforted him. "Have you eaten something bad or something?"

"No, I don't know why I had the nightmare." Eames shrugged and paused, pretending like he was thinking. "There was something with the numbers, but I forgot." Eames was a good actor and pretended like he was deep in thought again. He knew it would be enough to place a hint in the first level. Cobb would be able to build on this when they go deeper.

"I really don't know." Eames said after a while. "But I still can't sleep. What about you?"

"No, me neither." Wailun was very much awake.

"We can watch some TV in the living room." Eames suggested. He left out the 'and then drug you' part. He rose to his feet and pulled Wailun by his hand, but there was resistance. Wailun pulled him back onto the bed.

"I have a better idea." Wailun grinned and pulled Eames close to him. Eames was taken by surprise and soon found himself lying on the bed with Wailun on top of him. Wailun was planting kisses all over his neck, making Eames feel disgusting. The forger was a good actor and yes they were in a dream, but he also had his limits. He pushed Wailun away. "Wait, honey."

However, Wailun would not listen and continued kissing him as his hands caressed Eames' sides. Eames shuddered in disgust and was about to throw the man off, but then he yelled out a high pitched scream. Wailun stabbed him in the neck with an injection and pushed all the drugs in his system.

"Did you really think I would not notice? Don't underestimate me." Wailun said softly in his ear.  
Those were the last words he could make out, followed by screams and a lot of noises coming from the living room. Then everything went black.

"Eames! Wake up!" A voice shouted and Eames felt someone shake him by the shoulders. He opened his eyes, but the vision was blurred. He blinked a couple of times to clear his view. Slowly the blurry figures started to shape themselves.

"Where am I? What happened?" Eames asked. He discovered that it was Cobb who tried to wake him.

"We're in some kind of room." Cobb answered. The room turned out to be a very small bedroom. There was a small bed, a desk and a shelf with books.  
Eames tried to remember how he got in this unfamiliar environment. He remembered being drugged while they were performing the extraction. The forger took out his totem in the form of a poker chip and flipped it like a coin. When it landed in the palm of his hand, he made sure he was the only one who could see the result.

"We're still in a dream." Arthur told him when he saw what Eames tried to do. "All of our totems showed us we're still dreaming. It seems like we've been set up again."

"The door is also locked." Ada nodded her head in the direction of the only door in the room. Eames noticed that there were no windows as well.  
"We already tried to kick down the door." She added.

"Maybe I can fix that, darling." Eames felt inside his pocket and hoped he would be able to find something that could help them escape. Unfortunately his pockets were empty. Whoever built the dream either did not know he always kept a metal pin in his pocket or deliberately left out the pin in the dream.

"Who's dream is this?" Eames asked.

"We don't know. It could be Wailun's, but we're not sure." Cobb answered.

Then they heard rustling noises coming from an electric device. Everyone looked up, because the sound seemed to come from the ceiling.

"I see that you have made yourselves comfortable." An unfamiliar male voice said. "I admire your persistence and I must say I am very impressed with the way you work. I did not expect I had to go all out on this one."

"You can stop your flattery and tell us who you are." Cobb said.

"Ah I assume you must be Dominic Cobb, the infamous extractor." The voice ignored his demand.

Cobb squinted. "How do you know my name?"

"I know all your names." The voice said. "In fact, I probably know more about each one of you than anyone of your companions do inside this room. I think it is only fair for you to know my name as well. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Philip Bartel."

"Philip Bartel?" Eames was surprised.  
Ada looked at the other team members. All the men who were in the field a lot longer than her and Ariadne, had a worried look on their face.

"Yes, the one and only." The voice replied.

"Who is Philip Bartel?" Ada asked.

"He is the grandson of Darren Bartel, who was a captain in the military. He was in charge of the Project Somnacin that investigated dreaming. Darren Bartel is the one who invented dream sharing." Arthur answered. "He was the first to build a dream machine and was basically the very first extractor. After he died, the knowledge was passed on in the family. Philip is known for following his grandfather's footsteps. He was the first to explore many new terrains and pushed boundaries in dreams further than anyone else could."

Cobb knew they were in big trouble. They were up against a seasoned extractor.

"I feel honoured that you have heard of me." The voice said. "I have also heard a lot about you, especially about you Cobb. I am sorry to hear what happened to Mallorie. I am sure she was a very lovely woman."

Cobb clenched his jaw. He was beginning to dislike Philip more and more as time progressed.

"Now enough for introductions." The voice of Philip took on a more serious tone. "Even though I admire your efforts, it is still very bothersome for me if you continue to sniff around in my client's mind. I thought the first time would be enough by sending you down to the Black hole. The original plan was to send you all down, but of course at that time I was not aware of who my opponents were. When I found out I only managed to get one of you, I finally had a sense of who I was up against."

Ariadne breathed heavily in and out, using all her willpower to control her anger. This bastard was the one responsible for those horrific years.

"Sadly, you tried again to extract my client's thoughts. This time I will not underestimate you. I will make sure that this will be your last dream."

"Why are you doing this? What's in it for you?" Cobb asked.

"Oh don't get me wrong, Cobb. I have nothing against you and your team. It is just fate that decided that we are each other's enemy. But to answer your question, I will ask you the same question first. Why are you doing this?"

Cobb did not answer the question. He did not need to, because everyone who ever worked in this field shared the same reasons.

"Because you want to escape from reality? Or is it because it is too exciting to explore things that are impossible in real life? Or perhaps because you are able to earn big loads of money off of it?" Philip asked.  
"Before I was just like you, searching for jobs to extract information from others. Nowadays not anymore. I've found out where the real money is, where the real challenge lies: offering protection. Clients are often prepared to pay even more for protecting something they know. Plus protecting someone's mind means that you have to outsmart your enemy. It requires you to be one step ahead every time and to let your competitor chase you until they get tired."

"So you are letting us chase you?" Cobb asked.

"Up until now yes, but I have decided to end the game. I am sure you have already discovered that there is no way out."

Suddenly a clock appeared on the wall. It read 2 o'clock, but the hands of the clock were running backwards.

"I am not a coldblooded murderer. Therefore I will present you with a challenge. There is a puzzle in this room. The only way to get out is to solve the puzzle, but you have to be quick. I will give you two hours of time. If the clock hits 12 o'clock, it is game over and you all go directly down to the Black hole. If you somehow do manage to solve it, then you will wake up again wherever you left your body in reality." The voice explained. "Break a leg."

They heard some more rustling noises and then it was quiet.


	15. Challenges

**Previously:  
**

_"I have decided to end the game. I am sure you have already discovered that there is no way out."_

_Suddenly a clock appeared on the wall. It read 2 o'clock, but the hands of the clock were running backwards._

_"I am not a coldblooded murderer. Therefore I will present you with a challenge. There is a puzzle in this room. The only way to get out is to solve the puzzle, but you have to be quick. I will give you two hours of time. If the clock hits 12 o'clock, it is game over and you all go directly down to the Black hole. If you somehow do manage to solve it, then you will wake up again wherever you left your body in reality." The voice explained. "Break a leg."_

_They heard some more rustling noises and then it was quiet._

_**

* * *

**_

Cobb cursed loudly while Ariadne balled her fists in anger. Arthur's jaw was locked and his arms were folded while deep creases formed on his forehead. There was no way they would go back to that hell hole. Arthur was only in there for an hour, but it was far more than he wished for.  
Eames looked at his worried colleagues. He was the only one unable to fully grasp the gravity of the situation. "What if we end up in the Black hole? Are we able to get out?" The forger asked.

"No." Cobb turned his head to look at him. "Last time we escaped because Ada pulled us out in Limbo, which was directly above the level of the Black hole. If we all go down, there is nobody left to go to Limbo to get us."

Eames' face suddenly became pale white as reality sunk in. Meanwhile the clock was ticking. It seemed like every tick was a loud boom pounding in their ears.  
"We need to solve that puzzle. Search around you." Cobb quickly said. They had already wasted some time. Everyone search around them.

"Put everything you can find on the floor. Check every hole, loose floorboard, behind objects, everywhere." Cobb said. He noticed that his hands were shaking while he was inspecting the floor. The extractor was scared of what they would find. He already knew it would be one heck of a puzzle to solve and he did not like it at all to know that he was playing this game with his life on the line. Unfortunately he had always been bad at solving puzzles, even as a kid. Cobb quickly shook the negative thought out of his mind and continued searching for objects. He knew he had to remain positive, if he wanted to get out of there alive.

The team covered every inch in the room. They looked behind the shelf, in books, took apart the bed and Eames even took off the lampshade to inspect it. Eventually Arthur showed the rest a big long metal object, almost like a key, hidden in one of the books. Ariadne found a couple of small notes hidden in the bed linen. Cobb found a couple of small puzzle pieces and Eames handed over a small binocular.

"Guys, look at this." Ada said and removed a thin wooden plate from the door. It had the exact same colour and pattern as the door.  
Even Arthur had not notice that before with his excellent observation skills. Ada revealed a computer screen and a keyboard. Above the screen was a big hole with metal bars crisscrossing it. The screen itself only showed a blinking text cursor, ready to show whatever has been typed on the keyboard.

"What are we supposed to do with it? Type in passwords?" Arthur asked.

"I don't know, but I am glad it is a computer." Ada said. This was her field of expertise she thought in relief. This was something she was familiar with.  
"I'm going to hack into the system." She said. Before she even finished her sentence, her fingers already flew over the keyboard at top speed. Working with computers was almost like breathing to her. She only hoped that everything would work the same way as in reality. The team watched on the screen how she typed in what seemed like random letters and numbers to them.  
The computer let out a beeping noise and new words formed on the screen without Ada touching the keys. 'Error. Unknown command. Try again.'

"What's happening?" Cobb asked as he saw the confused look on Ada's face.

"Apparently computers don't work the same in dreams." Ada responded. She did not give up and tried a different way of hacking into the computer. The team let her do her thing while they investigated their findings. As the team was looking at the things, it slowly dawned upon them.

"The puzzle is actually a big puzzle. Every piece is a small puzzle on its own." Arthur was amazed at the challenge that was presented to them. Never had he encountered someone who could do such things in dreams. Even though he was in this field for so many years, he still had a lot to learn.

"Here, I am sure these notes form something." Ariadne said. She organized all the notes neatly so that everyone could read what was written on each note. Unfortunately none of them understood what it could mean, because they only read letters and numbers.

"Here, this should be here. The edges match each other." Arthur pointed out. The original piece of paper was torn into little pieces. By matching the edges of all the notes, the team was eventually able to glue back the piece of paper.

'(0n9ratulat1on5 t3^^.

Y()U hv3 dis(()v3r3d th3 f1r5t P1e(3. 5 we ar3 I^ dr3a^^, n()t 3veryth!^9 i5 s !t se3^^5.  
T0 93t ()ut y0u ^3ed p!Ece ()f Em35, a p13Ce 0f r!ad^e, a p1ec3 Of rtHur, pi3Ce ()f D a^D a p!ecE oF (o88.  
Y()U ^33d t0 Th!nK l1k3 y()U r3 0n J08. L0oK tHR()9h 9L5se5 0f ReaL!ty ^d 9lA553s oF Dr3a^^5.

DO^'t di5^^ay, F()r I w!ll 91ve Y()u (Lu3.  
TH3 (hLl3n9e 5tarTs w!tH P1ec3 Of r!ADn3 aND 3nD5 w!tH tH3 0^e ^()t R3diN9 m()^g5t yOu.  
5er(h thR0u9h ^^3m0r!e5, 53arCh Thr()u9h Fnts!3s. THo53 5hoUlD 8e y0Ur 5tRtegIe5.'

"Wonderful. What does it mean?" Eames asked.

"It looks similar to the code Xiu Ying painted." Ariadne remembered the painting.

Arthur thought about it. Was this another puzzle? He had the feeling that there was more behind this note. He skimmed through the code and was able to detect something.

"Hey, watch it, darling. You'll damage it even more." Eames said after Arthur yanked the message out of his hands.  
Arthur could not find a pen in the room, so instead he took out the metal bar and used the tip to scratch on the note. He smiled at the discovery that the metal left a trace on the paper, enabling him to write. After a couple of seconds, he handed over the note, so the rest could read.

_'Congratulations team._

_You have discovered the first piece. As we are in a dream, not everything is as it seems. _  
_To get out you need a piece of Eames, a piece of Ariadne, a piece of Arthur, a piece of Ada and a piece of Cobb. _  
_You need to think like you are on a job. Look through glasses of reality and glasses of dreams._

_Don't dismay, for I will give you a clue. _  
_The challenge starts with a piece of Ariadne and ends with the one not reading amongst you. _  
_Search through memories, search through fantasies. Those should be your strategies.'_

"Good job, Arthur." Cobb complimented and patted the point man on the shoulder.  
Everyone had to reread the message a couple of times. They were sure that a couple of hints were hidden in that message.

"It is scary how accurate he is." Ariadne commented.  
Philip must be observing them from somewhere outside, because he knew exactly what was going on in the room.

"That is indeed quite worrisome." Arthur answered, realizing the same thing as she did. "Basically he can send us down anytime he wants."

"We don't know that. Perhaps he needs the time limit. Only if we fail is he able to kill us." Eames said.

"Maybe he is toying with us. It is like a cat playing with a mouse before eating it." Arthur said wondering if there was even a point in trying to solve the challenge.

"I don't think so. I refuse to believe so." Eames said.

"Focus everyone." Cobb said, breaking the two up. "There is no point in wasting time discussing about Philip. What we need to do now is to beat this challenge. We have to stay positive." He eyed every member, threatening them with his eyes, as if daring them to think otherwise.

Meanwhile Ada came back and shook her head. "I can't get in the system. I've tried every trick I know."  
They already had a feeling it would not be this easy to get out.

"That's alright. Take a look at this, darling." Eames handed over the message.  
Ada read the note, but had to re-read it again. Cobb saw that she was finished. He broke up the message for them to make sure everyone interpreted it the same way, so that there would be no misunderstandings.  
"'Not everything is as it seems' and 'search through fantasies'. I think it means we need to be open for everything."

"Expect the unknown." Arthur corrected him. Cob nodded.

"It begins with my piece and ends with Ada's piece." Ariadne brought in. "So the note is our first puzzle and we have to end with solving the puzzle on the computer."

"'Search through memories, search through fantasies' and 'look through glasses of reality and glasses of dreams' should mean that we need to solve some things the way we do in reality or the way in dreams." Eames pointed out. "Those should be our strategies."

"But how do we know which one is the next piece if we only know the beginning and end?" Ada asked.

"I say we start with your puzzle, Cobb." Arthur suggested. "Frankly, I have no idea what kind of puzzle the binoculars or this piece of metal would be." He looked at the two objects. "The only thing we can solve now is Cobb's piece."

Cobb took out the different puzzle pieces. Meanwhile he threw a quick glance at the clock. Half an hour was already gone. Stress was building up so he hurried and threw all the pieces on the floor. The whole team worked together to put together the pieces. When they were done it revealed a picture filled with dots in different sizes.  
Eames scratched his head in annoyance. "I don't get it." He was getting frustrated, because he had always been a bit of a scatterbrain.

The others looked at it as well.  
"I really don't have an idea about this one." Arthur shrugged after a while.

Cobb looked at the clock. The ticking sound became louder and louder as time progressed. They were running out of time.

"It's an arrow!" Ada then exclaimed. She rose to her feet and motioned everyone else to do the same.  
As they were on their feet, they could finally see what the dots represented. The big dots together formed an arrow. Before, they were too close to it and it prohibited them from seeing the total picture. The arrow pointed at Eames' direction.

"Search the area behind Eames." Cobb said. Eames turned around and moved his hands over the wall, feeling if there was something hidden in it.  
Ada helped him and checked the floor near the wall. Both of them covered the entire area, but there was nothing.

"What now? It's just a wall and the floor." Ada asked.  
Cobb racked his brains. He was really bad at this. "Maybe the arrow pointed in the wrong direction?"

"No!" Ariadne said. "Don't touch the puzzle." She warned Arthur, who already made a grab for it. "Remember how accurate everything is. I think Philip can see us. I am sure he designed everything perfectly. The arrow is correct. We only misinterpreted it."

"That's not possible. How could Philip have known that we would lay the puzzle exactly like that. How could he know the arrow would point this way?" Ada asked.

"Ariadne is right." Arthur said. "I understand your point, Ada, but you are comparing everything to reality. We are all in a dream now. As the note warned us already, we should approach some things like we are in a dream."

"In order to get out, you must stop thinking logically." Cobb told her. "Everything is possible in dreams."

"But then how do you know for sure the arrow is correct?" Ada asked again. "How do you know Philip is not messing with us?"

Ariadne did not answer. She thought about it and concluded that she could not know. The others waited for her answer, but when it did not come, they took another look at the arrow. Ariadne looked at the arrow as well. What if she was right? Was it not worth a shot? It was better exploring this possibility than going back to start all over again.

"A piece of Eames." She mumbled.

Cobb's well trained ears picked up the sound of her voice. "What did you say?" He asked her, knowing that she figured out the next step.

"The arrow pointed at Eames." She repeated. "A piece of Eames, the binocular!"

Eames grabbed the black object from the bed and inspected it. It looked like a normal binocular. He raised it to eyelevel and looked through it. "I see another code." He said as he stared at the wall he inspected earlier. On the wall he could see more numbers and letters that were not there first. Apparently he could only see them through the binocular.

"Arthur, write it down while Eames reads it out loud." Cobb commanded.

"On what do you suggest me to write it on?" Arthur asked with slight sarcasm in his voice. He could not alter any paper and pens in the dream.

"Use the floor." Cobb said.

Arthur did what he was told. To his surprise, he easily cut through the what seemed like a hard wooden floor. Eames read out the code for the point man. After the two finished, everyone hurried over to take a look.

'Y()U Hv3 5UrPr!s3D ^^e y3T 9aI^.  
H0vv3veR, YoUR t!^^3 Is ru^^!n9 ()uT. T!(k tcK t!cK T(k.  
y()u vv^t T0 (ontinU3 ^o D0u8T nD n0 T!^^3 T() l()0k 8cK.  
TH3 n3T 5t3p I5 F0und !n p!3(e 0F rid^3. U53 Th3 3y35 nD y()u vv!Ll s()oN 83 fR3E.'

"It's the same kind of code." Arthur said and quickly rewrote the message.

_'You have surprised me yet again.  
However, your time is running out. Tick tack tick tack.  
You want to continue no doubt and no time to look back.  
The next step is found in a piece of Ariadne. Use the eyes and you will soon be free. '_

"The note!" Eames said quickly, glad he finally understood a hint. Ariadne took out the message and read it through.

"Use the eyes." Cobb read out the last line. "You look with eyes, but what do we need to look at?"

"Look at the message? Or maybe we need to look at the note again." Ariadne asked. She skimmed through the note again, but it did not make her any wiser.

"Eyes." Arthur said to himself while he was thinking. What else do you do with eyes?

"Look through glasses of reality and glasses of dreams." Ada suddenly said. "The eyes are glasses. You know the word four-eyes?"

"Yes! Blood hell, I got it." Eames said happily. "I need to look through the binocular. I looked through it like I would do in reality to see the code. Now I need to look at it like in a dream." He turned the object in his hands, trying to figure out how else to look through it.

"You need to look through it the other way around." Ada helped him. "Like small children do sometimes. Then you will get a minimized view."

Eames turned the object according to her instruction and looked through it. Then Cobb and Arthur dashed forward out of reflex and caught Eames in their arms before the man hit the floor.

"Eames!" Cobb yelled at him. The forger's eyes were wide open, but he was unconscious.

"Eames, wake up!" Cobb tried again. Meanwhile the clock kept on ticking, ready to announce their doom in one hour.


	16. Stress and testosteron

**Previously:  
**_"Yes! Blood hell, I got it." Eames said happily. "I need to look through the binocular. I looked through it like I would do in reality to see the code. Now I need to look at it like in a dream." He turned the object in his hands, trying to figure out how else to look through it._

_"You need to look through it the other way around." Ada helped him. "Like small children do sometimes. Then you will get a minimized view."_

_Eames turned the object according to her instruction and looked through it. Then Cobb and Arthur dashed forward out of reflex and caught Eames in their arms before the man hit the floor._

_"Eames!" Cobb yelled at him. The forger's eyes were wide open, but he was unconscious._

_"Eames, wake up!" Cobb tried again. Meanwhile the clock kept on ticking, ready to announce their doom in one hour. _

* * *

Eames was in the same room, but the others were not there with him. The bed was untouched, leaving no marks of Ariadne's abuse on it. All the books were neatly stacked in the shelf as well. Eames did not have a lot of time to take in his surroundings. After only a few seconds, he fell back into darkness.

"Eames!" Multiple voices were calling his name. The forger woke up again in the presence of his friends.

"Thank god." Cobb said and let out a big sigh of relief. The British man was only gone for a few seconds, but it was enough to worry everyone.

"It worked." Eames quickly said before the others could ask him questions. They only had an hour of time left.  
"Quick, give me the binocular. I went down into another dream." He explained.

"It let you dream?" Arthur asked, but did not let Eames answer. "The moment the binocular fell out of your hands, you woke up again a few seconds later."

"Then give me more time." Eames said. The two looked at each other. They communicated with their eyes and nodded after they felt they understood each other. Arthur grabbed the binocular and pressed it to Eames' face so he could look through it. Instantly Eames lost consciousness.

Eames was back into the empty room once again. His eyes scanned the room and soon he detected another code on the same wall as before. He could not find any paper and pens in this level either, so there was no choice but to remember everything by heart. Luckily for Eames, the message was not very long. After he memorized it, he looked around to see if he could find more clues.

Meanwhile the team waited for him above. Ada was crouched next to Arthur. For some reason she felt mentally exhausted. Her brain had been running at top speed for the last hour. Just like everyone else, she tried her best to help out so they could beat the challenge. Her brain was constantly thinking about the different puzzles that came along their way, but at the same time she spend equal amount of effort worrying about everything. The stress was getting to her. How many times had she gambled with her life already? It was not just her life, but that of all of her newfound friends as well.  
Only one hour. This could be the last sane hour of her life. They would have years of time left in the Black hole, but it would not be the same. She had never thought about death before this job. She never thought about what she would do if she knew she only had limited time left to live.

Unconsciously she looked at Arthur. She had admired him from the day they first met. He was always so professional. He always knew what to do, how to do things right and it seemed like everything he did would always go perfect. Whenever she watched him work or just merely look at him, she would feel inspired to do her best. He gave her confidence and reassurance that everything would be okay.  
Arthur felt someone looking at him while he was holding the binocular in place, so he instinctively looked back. Ada was surprised to see the content in his eyes. She hoped Arthur could inspire her once more and feel the warmth of his confidence in her that would absorb the stress, but she found something else. He was beginning to lose hope.

"I think that is enough." Cobb said to the point man.  
Arthur tore his gaze away from Ada and removed the binocular. Eames woke up again and immediately grabbed the metal bar and wrote the code he memorized on the floor.

'|-|3rE !5 (lu3 F()r T|-|e L5t ^^a^ l3fT m0^9st YoU. r3 y0U R3Lly 5Ur3 tHT Fl0()r (^nOT AL50 83 C3!l!^9?''  
Eames rewrote the message next to the code.

'Here is a clue for the last man left amongst you. Are you really sure that a floor cannot also be a ceiling?'

"That was all I could find." He said after he was finished.

"That is a quote from Escher." Arthur immediately stated. He was a big fan of Escher's works and had often incorporated them into dreams. He loved to use the endless stairs as a paradox. It worried him that Philip knew this detail of him. The point man grabbed the metal bar. "A clue for me." He mumbled. What kind of puzzle did he have to face? What is the link between a floor and ceiling, and this metal object?

Everyone wondered the same questions.

"We haven't checked the ceiling." Cobb said. They had explored every inch in this room, except for the ceiling. The extractor eyed his female colleagues briefly and then concluded that Ariadne was probably the lightest of the two. "Eames, can you lift up Ariadne?"

"No problem." Eames said.  
Ariadne also got the hint and stepped on the bed. Eames kneeled before her and with the help of Cobb and Arthur, they managed to get the architect on the forger's shoulders. Eames raised himself to his full length. Ariadne reached for the ceiling with her hands and began exploring the surface. She made sure to check the whole surface, but she could not find anything.

"We are approaching this the wrong way." Ariadne said after she got down on her own feet. "It has something to do with Arthur. Only he can solve this one."

"If you have any suggestions as to how I should do that, feel free to share it." Arthur said. No matter how much he thought about it, he had no idea what to do with the metal bar.

"We should go back to the note." Cobb said after nobody gave any suggestions.  
Ariadne took out the note. It felt like the hundredth time she read those lines. The more often she read it, the less sense it made.

"What about Ada's piece?" Arthur asked as he recalled her part was the last one. "We can try that first."

"I think all these codes are connected to that computer." Ariadne said.

"The codes are written in Malbolge." Ada replied. "I already thought it could have something to do with my part, but I don't think it's that easy."

"You should give it a shot." Cobb told her. "Right now, we don't know what else to do."

"But it doesn't make sense. Malbolge is a programming language. It seems more like we need to crack the system." Ada said.

"Ada, you're thinking logically. We're in a dream." Cobb said with a hint of frustration.  
Cobb was right. It was difficult for Ada to let go of logic, because she was used to this mindset.

"I'll try." She answered and made her way to the computer. She first typed in the code used on the note. The team waited anxiously and hoped with all their might that it would work. Cobb looked at the big hole with crisscrossed metal bars above the screen. Perhaps Arthur's piece also had a connection with that.

When Ada pressed the enter button, she expected text to appear on the screen, telling her she needed to try again. However, to her surprise, the screen said 'Running, please do not touch the keyboard'. Something moved above the screen. Some of the metal bars were retreated, revealing partly what was behind them. In the middle, there was a small hole.  
Ada could not see how deep it was, but she was very sure of it. "I think Arthur's piece should fit in here."

"It's a key." Arthur concluded and looked at the metal bar. So that was what it was. He instantly felt bad about using it as a pen now that he knew the importance of the object. What if they had damaged or even broken it? He shuddered at the thought.

Ada continued typing in the codes Eames found. While she was typing, she felt a bit of hope coming back to her. It did her good to finally know what do with the computer. She paid more close attention to the codes, because she had to type it on the computer. Now that she knew what the codes did, she slowly began to understand the structure of the language. When she was finished, more bars were removed. There were only two bars left that blocked the key hole.

"That's it. Those were all the codes we have so far." Ada told the rest.

"That leaves us with Arthur's part." Cobb said.

"Perhaps Arthur needs to walk upside down?" Eames asked.

"It could be, but how?" The extractor replied.

"Can't we lift the chap up?" Eames tried.

"Now you're just talking gibberish. That doesn't make any sense." Arthur disliked the forger's idea.

"It doesn't have to make any sense." Ada added. The others agreed, much to Arthur's dismay. And so he found himself lying in the arms of Cobb and Eames.

"Hold your feet up, darling. The ceiling should be your floor." Eames told him.

"I still don't think this is a good idea." Arthur said. He got a bad feeling about this.  
"It doesn't hurt to try." Eames said.

"Speak for yourself." Arthur snarled back. He was the one dangling dangerously in the arms of his colleagues.  
Eames only rolled his eyes in response. The two men lifted Arthur up, but due to Arthur's weird position, he could not get high enough.

"Maybe if we throw—"  
"No!" Arthur quickly cut off Eames.

"Guys, be careful." Ada told them.

"Let's try again, only higher this time. No throwing team members around, even if it is a dream." Cobb said to Eames. "On the count of three. One … Two … Three!"

The men hurled Arthur in the air and his feet came in contact with the ceiling. For one moment they thought it worked, but then gravity took over control of Arthur's body. Cobb and Eames realized too late that Arthur was falling. They managed to catch him, but they were too late to break his fall. Arthur landed quite painfully on his back.

"I told you this was a bad idea!" He said, rubbing his sore back.

"Okay that did not go so well." Cobb admitted.  
Unfortunately that was their last idea. Now they were out of ideas again. The team racked their brains once again, each of them observing their own objects. From time to time they would glance at the clock. It was still ticking. Time was running out and they were stuck. Cobb took a peek at the clock for the millionth time. Only half an hour left. He felt his forehead moisten and figured that he was beginning to sweat due to the pressure.

"We need to use the binocular again." Eames tried. "Some things can be solved the way we would do in reality, but some things need to be solved the way we would in dreams."

"Eames, I have had enough of your stupid ideas." Arthur told him. His back still hurt.

"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't hear you contributing any ideas." Eames replied with sarcasm.

"I believe it is better to keep my mouth shut than spraying useless ideas around." Arthur glared at him.

"Can you be positive once in your life?" Eames raised his voice. "I have had enough of your criticism. We're about to die if we don't do something!"

"Guys, calm down." Ariadne tried.  
"Shut up Ariadne. I'm not done teaching Eames that he wouldn't have to hear my criticism if he would try harder." Arthur said.

"Arthur! Don't talk to Ariadne like that." Ada butted in.  
"Guys, break it up." Cobb ordered them.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Eames ignored his colleagues and glared at Arthur.

"We would not be in this mess if you had done a better job tricking Wailun." Arthur answered.

"Pardon me? Are you saying this is my fault?" Eames took a step in Arthur's direction, trying to intimidate him.  
Arthur paid no heed to that. He stepped closer as well like a lion defending his territory. "Yes, this is all YOUR fault."

That was the last drop. Eames closed the gap between them swiftly, grabbed Arthur by the collar and punched him in the face. Arthur stumbled back while the others gasped in shock. Anger was boiling inside Arthur, while he felt blood tickle down his chin from the corner of his mouth. As payback, he treated Eames to a right hook of his own. By now the remaining three tried to separate them. Everyone started to shout at the same time.

"Break it up!" Cobb shouted as loud as he could, but nobody heard him. Meanwhile they were wasting valuable time.


	17. Tying up loose ends

**A/N Final chapter guys! I want to say thank you to all readers. Thank you guys for sticking with me through each chapter and all the wonderful comments. I had a blast writing this story. The movie Inception will always remain one of the most entertaining movies for me and I will always have a soft spot for Christopher Nolan. I hope you guys enjoyed this all as much as I did :D**

**Previously:  
**

_"Pardon me? Are you saying this is my fault?" Eames took a step in Arthur's direction, trying to intimidate him._  
_ Arthur paid no heed to that. He stepped closer as well like a lion defending his territory. "Yes, this is all YOUR fault."_

_That was the last drop. Eames closed the gap between them swiftly, grabbed Arthur by the collar and punched him in the face. Arthur stumbled back while the others gasped in shock. Anger was boiling inside Arthur, while he felt blood tickle down his chin from the corner of his mouth. As payback, he treated Eames to a right hook of his own. By now the remaining three tried to separate them. Everyone started to shout at the same time._

_ "Break it up!" Cobb shouted as loud as he could, but nobody heard him. Meanwhile they were wasting valuable time.

* * *

_

Eames and Arthur were blinded by anger. The only thing going through their mind was beating the other one up into a bloody pulp. They could not even notice the women trying to hold them back. Cobb stood in between them, but it did not help. He decided to use his authority once more.

"EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Cobb screamed at the top of his lungs.  
Everyone was momentarily distracted by his outburst.

Cobb seized this opportunity. "Eames, let go of Arthur and sit on the bed. Arthur, back up in the corner. Ada, Ariadne, keep an eye on those two."  
The two men looked at him for moment, deciding whether they should punch Cobb for yelling at them or listen to him.

Cobb glared at them. "Do it or else you're off the team. NOW!" He barked.

Eames released Arthur, but he did not move. "I'm fine now." He said after taking a deep breath.  
Arthur brushed his clothes, trying to get the wrinkles out. Then he nodded to Cobb.

"I know everyone is stressed, but time is running out. We need to keep our heads clear and think of a way to get the fuck out of here." Cobb said.  
The rest agreed.

"So far we don't have any other ideas, so we will try Eames' idea." Cobb said. He could see from Arthur's face that he did not like that, but they had no other choice.

Ada picked up the binocular and handed it over to Arthur. He looked through the correct side and scanned the room. "Nothing." He said after a few seconds.  
"Try the other side." Cobb urged him on.

Arthur gave back the binocular to Ada and lied down. Ada helped him by pressing the object to his face. As soon as Arthur looked through the glasses, he entered another dream.  
It was the same room, but he was alone this time. The room was untarnished and looked like a normal bedroom. The only thing that did not fit in the room was the computer and the hole above it that were attached to the door. Arthur approached the door to have a closer look. That was strange. The metal bars were gone. There was a smaller hole in it. What should he do with this?  
He searched through the bed and the books on the shelf. Eventually he found the metal key in the exact same place he found it in the level above. He then finally understood. Arthur approached the hole again. He took the key and inserted it in the hole. It fit! He felt hope surge back into his body as he realized this. In reality he would unlock something by turning the key. He wondered if here it would work the same. He grabbed hold of the key and turned it.

Meanwhile a level above, the others looked at the clock. There was not much time. They could only hope that Arthur was able to solve his puzzle by himself. The ticking stressed everyone out. Ada could swear her heart was synchronizing with the ticking. Everyone kept looking at the clock constantly. Sometimes they would look at each other to find comfort and support, but none of them had much hope left.

Suddenly it seemed like gravity vanished and everyone flew upwards. The team let out yelps of surprises and found out that they fell upwards on the ceiling.

"Ouch, what happened?" Arthur asked as he rubbed his head. A bump began to emerge on the top of his head.

"I don't know. We suddenly fell." Cobb said and scrambled back onto his feet.

"It's like the room has turned 180 degrees." Araidne said and rubbed her own sore back.

They were all standing on the ceiling. The floor was now the ceiling and vice versa. Only the team seemed to experience this twist. The bed was neatly attached to the new ceiling above them, as well as the shelf and the books.

"When I went under, the hole was cleared in the door." Arthur explained and pointed at the hole above the computer. "I found the key in the book and it fit in the hole. When I turned the key, I woke up."

"As we were falling, the binocular fell out of my hand." Ada filled him in.

"Are you really sure that a floor cannot also be a ceiling?" Eames repeated the riddle meant for Arthur. "That's brilliant."

"No time for admiration, guys. Look at this." Cobb said and pointed at the piece of ceiling they were standing on. It was another code.

'()^lY t|-|3 i^ve^t0R (n F!ni5h Th3 ChLl3n93.'

Ada immediately raced towards the computer. Luckily the computer turned with them so that she could type.  
Eames immediately translated the code. "Only the inventor can finish the challenge."

Ada managed to remove one of the two remaining bars blocking the hole for Arthur's key. Wonderful, now everything rested on her shoulders. How was she supposed to solve this challenge without any clues? That was not fair. As if she did not have enough pressure yet, the clock showed her they only had 15 minutes left. The task was obvious: she had to program the computer to remove the last bar so that Arthur could unlock the door. The question was how?

Ada scanned through all the codes they found and tried to understand the language. She commanded her brain to function at maximum capacity, but her brain protested. She was exhausted and it took her immense effort to concentrate. Why did it have to be Malbolge? She thought in frustration. There were so many other types of programming languages, but why did it have to be the most complex one? At her college they offered a special introduction course on Malbolge. It was a course for people that were interested in this language from hell. At that time she thought she would not need it, because there was no way anyone would be able to program in this language. She definitely regretted not taking that course now.  
By now she had read the codes a couple of times. In the stream of letters and numbers, she picked out the basic structure of the language, but it was not enough to fully program something herself.

The rest of the team did not speak the entire time. They knew the inventor was trying her best to solve the challenge and even though they did not understand all the technical rubbish, they knew the challenge was extremely difficult. A few minutes had passed and Ada had tried many times to complete her task, but every time the same text appeared: 'Error. Unknown command. Try again.'

Cobb noticed she was getting frustrated. With each new attempt, she hit the keys with more force. He glanced at the clock again. He really had to stop doing that. Each time it stressed him out, but he could not help it. He was tied between letting her work in peace and urging her to hurry up. He really wanted to do the latter one, but he was scared that he would distract her or make her even more stressed than she already was.

"Ada-" Arthur made the decision for Cobb.  
Ada immediately shushed the speaker to silence. "I'm already working on it." She only said and continued to furiously abuse the keyboard.

"That was not what I wanted to say." Arthur said softly, so he would not disturb her again.  
The long silence made him think. He looked at her small frame. She looked so tired. Her hair was a mess and her skin was awfully pale. Yet nothing of that could diminish the feeling in his chest. A few hours ago he was scared to face the truth. However, death was approaching fast. The bit of hope he collected in the dream one level deeper, was slowly disappearing. Arthur did not want to die with regrets. He needed to face his fears, now that there were still a few minutes of time left. And so he approached her.

When Arthur got close enough, he caught a glimpse of her face. Her cheeks were stained with tears of frustration. Then the same text appeared on the screen again, showing her she had failed. Arthur saw that the failed attempts were breaking her. She could not do it. The challenge was too difficult. They were all going to die. Arthur realized that and had to suppress the powerful emotion of despair. There was not much time left.  
He stepped forward to stand next to her and this distracted her momentarily. She turned to look at him. Arthur did not care anymore. He did not care that his team members were standing behind them. He let go of his fears and his pride.  
Then he placed both his hands on the sides of her face. She gasped softly in surprise, but he paid no attention to that. He pulled her closer to him and pressed his lips gently against hers, kissing her as passionately as he could. He gave everything in that kiss. Arthur was not very good with words, but his actions could speak for him.

Ada was caught off guard by the kiss, but she did not protest. She kissed him back with the same amount of passion. She felt ecstatic that Arthur felt same the way about her, but it tore her heart into pieces, knowing that this will all end very soon. More tears flowed down her cheeks. How unfair that this happiness was given to her, only to be taken away again in a few minutes. She did not want this to end. She wanted to fight for it. She could not give up, not yet.  
Ada pushed away Arthur with much force and turned back to the computer. Arthur stumbled back, in shock by her action. For one moment he thought she rejected him, but seeing how hard she was trying to solve the challenge, made him understand. She was fighting for them.  
The same text was still flashing on the screen.

"Ada, it's okay." Arthur said.  
"No, I can do this." Ada was determined.

"Ada. You don't have to-" Cobb finally spoke. He knew they had no choice but to accept death.  
Ada shushed him to silence as well while her fingers raced over the keyboard.

"Well, it was a pleasure working with you, my darlings." Eames said and began hugging everyone.  
Everyone except Ada stared at the clock. It would all be over in a few seconds. Cobb started to count down the last few seconds in his head.

"Arthur, now!" Suddenly Ada yelled. Arthur threw a glance at the hole and understood. He grabbed his key and jammed it into the cleared hole.  
Then everything went black.

Arthur opened his eyes and expected to see the white mist again. Instead, he saw blurry images and had to blink a few times to clear his view. They were back in the rented car. Everyone woke up and looked at each other. Smiles of relief formed on their faces.

"You okay?" The Chinese driver asked them.

"Yes we're fine." Cobb said and had to chuckle. They nearly escaped death, but it felt like some exciting adventure to them, now that they were safe.

"The Chinese man is gone." The driver said.  
Cobb noticed that Wailun was indeed missing. "That's alright. Bring us back to the hotel."

Ariadne packed up the dream machine in the meantime. She felt slightly uncomfortable sitting between the two love birds as they smiled happily to each other, although Arthur had more difficulty smiling. He forgot about his busted lip.

When they arrived at the hotel, Cobb handed over a thick stack of money bills to the driver like he promised. The driver took off with the rented car.  
Just as the team thought things were finally over, fate decided to play with them a bit more.  
Not long after the Chinese driver took off, a black car suddenly drove towards them. It stopped in front of them, alarming the team. Wailun stepped out of the car, accompanied by several other men.

"We finally meet face to face in reality." Wailun said.

Cobb squinted. That bastard. Philip did not say anything about this after solving his damn puzzles.  
"Philip's challenge couldn't do the trick, so you're here to finish the job." Cobb said.

"On the contrary." Wailun grinned. "I am here to offer one of you a job." Wailun said.

"What kind of job?" Cobb asked. He was still suspicious. Was there another impossible job coming at his way? He was sure that it would not be an 'offer'. Powerful men like Wailun would simply force him to do whatever they wanted.

"Relax Mr. Cobb. This does not concern you." Wailun waved him off. "As you all know, T-tech is currently at the top in the market. We have managed to stay at the top for years because we are highly innovative. The reason for this is because we have pooled together an organisation of highly talented people." He smiled and focussed his attention only on Ada.  
"At first I was angry because you tried to steal my project, but I have seen the way you work, especially you, Miss Wright. I recognize talent when I see it. I would like you to join my company and I am sure we can create great things together."

"You mean I have to leave HBA and join your company?" Ada asked.

"I can assure you that you will be able to accomplish much more at T-tech than HBA. Plus I will double whatever they are paying you at HBA." Wailun offered.

"Hold up." Eames said. "Do you think you can just recruit anyone of our team whenever you want?" This guy had some nerve, trying to recruit one of them. A second ago he was trying to kill all of them.

"Eames. This is not our business." Cobb told the forger. "Ada was only supposed to help us with this job. Now that we're done, she is free to do whatever she wants."

"What? Cobb, we're a team." Eames said. Did this entire adventure mean nothing to the extractor? Eames had become to trust Ada just as much as anyone else on the team.

Cobb wanted her to stay, but he could not force her if she did not want to. He would completely understand if she wanted to get away from all the danger and take up a more normal job. He was happy for her that she received this great opportunity, that she had a choice.

However, Arthur had a completely different opinion. He grabbed the inventor's hand. "Stay." He only said. He did not care anymore. He permitted himself to act selfishly this time.  
Ada smiled in response to him. This choice was already made a long time ago and she did not even had to think about it. She gave Arthur a reassuring squeeze and rotated her attention back to Wailun.  
"Thank you for your offer, but I prefer to stay with Cobb and the others."

Wailun seemed disappointed by her answer. "I see. That's very unfortunate. Well, if you ever change your mind, you're always welcome to join our company." Wailun nodded to one of his men.  
The guy approached Cobb and handed over a letter.  
"This was something I had to give you. And about the code you extracted: you're free to do with it whatever you want. HBA no longer forms a threat to us. We have already started producing the project. Sooner or later HBA will find out about this anyway." Wailun said. Then he said goodbye to the team and left.

Cobb opened the letter and read it out loud for his team. "Congratulations for solving the challenge. The rumours about you have been true. You have proven to be a worthy competitor. May we meet again next time under better circumstances. Philip Bartel."

"What a creep." Ariadne said. "As if this was all a game to him."

"Who cares?" Eames said and had a huge grin on his face. "We're still alive and nobody is trying to kill us."

"I couldn't agree more." Cobb grinned as well while he tore the letter into pieces.

"Shall we go collect our reward for the job? I think I know how to convert the code now for HBA." Ada said.

"That sounds like an excellent idea." Arthur spoke for the entire team and smiled at her. He wondered what else fate had in store for them and for the first time he was not worried about the future. He was excited.


End file.
